Construction of the Leaning Tower of Toruń started in the thirteenth century to defend the town. It is built of red brick and is 49 feet (15 meters) tall. The top sits 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 meters) away from where it would be if the tower were perfectly vertical. The article attributes the lean to loamy ground. The style is Gothic.
The tower originally had a Gothic tented roof, later replaced by a pitched one. It stopped serving as a defense in the eighteenth century and became a women's prison. In the nineteenth century it housed a blacksmith's shop and a gunsmith's apartment, and in the 1970s and 1980s a souvenir shop and cafe.
Today it houses the Toruń Cultural Department. It is part of the Medieval Town of Toruń, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.
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