Photo Gallery More Lean Than Pisa
The Elisabeth spring is leaching the earth from beneath the town, and in some places the ground has become dangerously unstable. The most obvious sign of this instability is the steeple of the Church of Our Dear Lady of the Mountain.
A yellow sign right next to the church bears the message: "Danger Area -- Danger of Collapse."
When you walk in through the door of the church, you get an unusual view. You can see directly up into the cloudless sky, and you get a direct view of the leaning tower. The church has been missing a roof since 1961.
It was removed after falling into disrepair, and has never been replaced. Art treasures, the pulpit and the baptismal font are all long gone, and grass grows in the nave.
The Elisabeth spring winds its way quietly through the park in the center of spa town of Bad Frankenhausen in the eastern German state of Thuringia.
Despite its harmess appearance, the spring is actually leaching the earth from under the town. In some places the ground has become dangerously unstable.
A few hundred meters downhill from where the church tower leans, one finds the pretty Kyffhäuser thermal baths.
The Elisabeth spring feeds the pools with the healing waters that make it popular with visitors. Bad Frankenhausen is a nationally recognized medical spa site.
So that it is not too strong for treatments, the spring water is diluted so that its saline content does not exceed 3.5 percent. But that stil leaves water that is rich enough in minerals to be useful in treating skin, joint and respiratory problems as well as other maladies.
The earth beneath Bad Frankenhausen is filled with salt and other minerals. The spring that feeds through it delivers rich mineral water to the local spa.
Just a few minutes drive outside of Bad Frankenhausen, one can see just how treacherous the church tower's invisible, underground adversary can be. Last November a giant sinkhole developed in the Diamentenen Aue, or "diamond meadows," area between Bad Frankenhausen and the neighboring town of Rottleben.
The ground here is just as porous as the earth beneath the leaning church tower. Not far from the street itself, part of the field recently subsided, giving way to a 12-meter-deep sinkhole. You can still see the crater -- with vertical walls and a diameter of more than 20 meters -- today, and it is barely cordoned off.
The springs have caused geological problems in the region. Now there are so-called sinkholes here. "We have to deal with a massive amount of leaching," says geologist Frank Rey. According to Rey's calculations, the springs at Bad Frankenhausen carry away around 250 tons of salt each day. "I don't even want to think about the implications," the geologist quips.
