(RNN) – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is very slowly on its way to becoming the Straight Tower of Pisa.
The famously tilted bell tower in Italy has apparently been straightening slightly for most of the past two decades, according to the BBC.
An organization that oversees the restoration and maintenance of the tower, the Surveillance Group, told the BBC that since a massive stabilization effort concluded in 2001, it’s actually corrected another four centimeters on its own.
In the ’90s, officials were worried the leaning tower was on the verge of falling over entirely. A huge, more than decade-long engineering project straightened it by more than 15 inches.
In 2008, officials declared it had stopped moving and would be stable for at least 200 years.
Now, it appears all the stabilization efforts have been so successful, it’s self-correcting.
“It’s as if it’s had two centuries taken off its age,” an Italian professor familiar with the structure, Salvatore Settis, told the BBC.
Construction began on the tower in the 12th century, and it was evident early on that it was beginning to sink. Nonetheless, it was finished about 200 years later, and has stood as one of the world’s quirkiest monuments ever since.
Don’t worry about it ever standing upright, though.
Even if it maintained its current rate, a professor and consultant to the restoration group, Nunziante Squeglia, told The New York Times that it would take 400 years to fully straighten.
So you’ll have plenty of time to see it while it’s still leaning.
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