Leaning Tower of Suurhusen, Medieval steeple in Suurhusen, Germany.
The Leaning Tower of Suurhusen is a Gothic brick steeple in the town of Suurhusen, part of Aurich district in northern Germany. The structure rises roughly 27 meters and leans about 2.5 meters away from its vertical line at the top.
The steeple was built around 1450 as part of the village church, resting on oak trunks driven into marshy ground. Drainage work in the 19th century dried out the timber foundation and caused the tower to sink unevenly.
The church belongs to the Protestant Reformed congregation of Suurhusen–Marienwehr, one of its two places of worship, and services are held on feast days. Around six to eight thousand outside visitors are counted each year. A sandstone block set into the tower's northwest corner marks the level of the All Saints' Flood of 1570, at 4.40 metres above sea level.
The tower sits next to the church in the village center and remains visible from the outside at all times, though interior visits depend on when the parish opens. Travelers reach the site on the regional road between Emden and Aurich, with parking available nearby.
The tilt measures 5.19 degrees, which surpasses the Leaning Tower of Pisa by more than one full degree. The structure has held the official record since 2007 as the most tilted unintentionally leaning tower in the world.
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