Chandra Burns, age 14, of Nampa, Idaho, for her question:

WHERE IS THE OLDEST CAMPANILE?

A "campanile" is a bell tower. The oldest campaniles were built at Ravenna and Classe in Italy in the A.D. 500s. These early bell towers belonged to churches.

Campaniles were built to hold the bells that called worshipers to church services. Unlike steeples, they often stand free from the church itself. The tower sometimes connects to the church with a passageway to the arcades. The word "campanile" comes from an Italian word meaning "bell."

Most of the campaniles are round but an exception is the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, started in the 1100s.

Famous campaniles include those of the Cathedral of Florence and of Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

Only a few campaniles were built between the 1400s and the 1800s. The campanile of Westminster Cathedral in London was built in 1897. After 1920, many campaniles of various designs were constructed for churches around the world.