The Leaning Tower of Cologne

In 2004, the 44-meter-high church tower of St. John Baptist came to be The Leaning Tower of Cologne in the headlines as it leaned 77 cm westwards on September 29, after a supply shaft for the under construction North-South light rail 14 meters below the church.

To prevent the collapse of the church tower, it was supported obliquely from the outside with six pieces of steel profile. After the cavities under the tower were also filled with concrete, the neighboring Severins Bridge, which had been blocked for safety reasons, will be released for traffic again on 4 October 2004.

Tower of St. Johann Baptist at a crossroads in Cologne.
Image credit: A.Savin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image source · Reduced for web presentation and saved as WebP. · Image credit

According to an expert opinion, the tower could have remained safely without the attached supports, but the church council of the community agreed to the rebuilding of the tower. This was originally intended until World Youth Day 2005 (with visit of the Pope); however, the plans were only realized on 26 October 2005, when the tower was straightened again with the help of hydraulic presses. The west side of the tower was raised by 13.5 cm in controlled 10 mm increments. The repair work cost about one million euros, for which the insurance of the Cologne transport companies had to come up.

Sources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johann_Baptist_(K%C3%B6ln)