Steeple leans more than Pisa

(Top) The leaning steeple of the church in Suurhusen, Germany, and the tower in Pisa, Italy. (AP)

London, Nov. 6: A crooked German church steeple has knocked the leaning tower of Pisa from the Guinness World Records as the world’s most leaning building.

The tower in the village of Suurhusen in northern Germany applied in June for the title and this week had it confirmed that it had beaten the famous landmark in Pisa.

Guinness World Records officials confirmed it is leaning at a 5.19 degree angle compared to the 3.97 degree of the tower of Pisa.

The more famous Italian structure was recently straightened to avoid it collapsing in the next 30 years.

Olaf Kuchenbecker of the Guinness World Records office in Hamburg said: “It is a world record.” The church was built in the middle of the 13th century but a 90-foot tower was added in 1450.

The tower was built on wooden foundations and the combination of the oak wood foundations and wet soil has caused the tower to slowly lean to one side over the years.