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The Campanile's origins go back to 888, when Doge Pietro Tribuno had a watchtower built on the site to help defend Venice's political center. The structure was rebuilt and expanded several times over the following centuries -- in the 12th, 14th, and 16th centuries -- with the marble loggia at its base added in the 16th century by the architect Jacopo Sansovino.
In the early hours of July 14, 1902, the tower collapsed into Piazza San Marco. Cracks had been visible in the structure for at least a week beforehand, but no precautions were taken, and visitors were still allowed to climb it just days before it came down; remarkably, the collapse injured no one (the only casualty was a caretaker's cat).
Venice's mayor at the time, Filippo Grimani, declared that the tower would be rebuilt "com'era e dov'era" -- as it was, where it was. Reconstruction took a decade, reusing many of the original bricks, and the rebuilt Campanile reopened on April 25, 1912, a near-exact copy of the original with added structural reinforcements to prevent a repeat collapse. Its bell, the Marangona, is the only one of the original five bells to have survived intact.