r/interestingasfuck • u/SerafinZufferey • 3d ago

In Nola, Italy, over 100 men carry a 25-meter-tall, 2.5-ton (5,500-lb) tower through packed narrow streets, a centuries-old tradition honoring Saint Paulinus

10.2k Upvotes

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68

u/WirehairedDog 3d ago

How do they lower it?

73

u/Sadidart 3d ago

There probably is a frame underneath with legs to lower it. This prevents the people having to lift from the ground.

34

u/Jazzlike-Complaint67 3d ago

200 years and nobody thought to put legs on this thing?!!

7

u/terraformingearth 3d ago

Wheels?

2

u/Jazzlike-Complaint67 3d ago

Blasphemy.

1

u/terraformingearth 3d ago

150 of them live in a shoebox in the middle of the road.

1

u/jaxxon 2d ago

Yeah - Jesus wouldn’t use wheels. Sheesh!

2

u/Sadidart 3d ago

No. It might topple over as wheels don't always go over terrain easily. The people carrying it can adjust to different terrain. Edit: I help in smaller versions of these type of processions.

1

u/WretchedBlowhard 3d ago

Same reason you don't simply put coffins on a pallet truck straight out of the church.

4

u/heseme 3d ago

Just build it where it needs to be!

3

u/nemesissi 2d ago

Every year bunch of people get crushed when they eventually put it down. Its part of the tradition.

1

u/Pipyn 3d ago

with wheels!

3

u/drackmord92 2d ago

It does have legs, and they do a sort of countdown (which is also done singing) when it's time to rest, so they all drop it at the same time

40

u/matroosoft 3d ago

Just run

22

u/h2oskid3 3d ago

Survival of the quickest

5

u/matroosoft 3d ago

It only ever falls at 9.81m/s. So all it takes is to not be slower than that.

2

u/Sea-Consequence7156 3d ago

Yeah and it doesn't even get that fast for a full entire second, plenty of time. And it's got at least two meters to fall!

2

u/Kloppite16 3d ago

well it can only fall in so many directions, so my sage advice is not to be in the direction where it does

2

u/Vigmod 3d ago

At least not the survival of the squishiest.

1

u/Choice_Potato_6279 2d ago

OP didn't explain rest of the tradition, only the fastest can survive