№ 80
Before Restoration

The Tower's Arcade Up Close, Before Restoration

The same polygonal tower already seen in exhibit No. 77 — only now the view stops right at its most ornate section: a colonnade of round arches with leaf-carved capitals, wrapping around the tower like an open gallery. Behind the columns are open windows, some with broken panes. Above, along the cornice, a crack running the full width of the wall is clearly visible, and on the right the corner of a supporting bracket is crumbling — the plaster has peeled away, exposing bare brick underneath. In the very corner of the roof, between the sheets of tin, a sapling has taken root and is growing green.

This frame, more than any other in the series, shows just how much attention even the smallest decorative details demand: every little column, every leaf on every capital was painstakingly built in brick at the end of the 19th century, and now time and damp are wearing them away bit by bit. The sapling sprouting right in a gap in the roof is perhaps the smallest but most telling sign of neglect — roots growing exactly where a watertight roof should be.

The animation continues the movement of the previous exhibits — the camera moves in even closer on the columns' capitals, allowing a close look at every crack and crumbled detail that will need to be restored.

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