Astronomical Clock travel guide

A Sight Worth Your Time

On this clock it was possible to see the movements of the heavens throughout the whole year with the number of months, days and hours. Rising and setting of the stars, the longest and the shortest days, the equinoctia, the feast days for the whole year, the length of day and night, new and full moon and the quarters, the three different striking hours according to the whole and the half clock.« This is how the painter, copper engraver and art publisher Merian described the horologium clockface on the south side of the town hall tower in 1650. Scarcely anything has changed in 500 years. The original construction of the clock is said to date from 1410, and in 1490 Master Hanuš of Charles University made additions to it. The story goes that the councillors had Hanuš blinded in order to prevent him from making anything of the sort for any other city. Shortly before his death the blind man climbed the tower and stopped the clock mechanism before the Apostles’ procession had begun. The clock stood still until 1551 – but here the legend ends: between 1552 and 1572, Jan Táborský restored the mechanism.The Astronomical Clock comprises three parts: Apostles’ procession, clockface and calendar-wheel. The main attraction is the Apostles’ procession with 19th-century figures that takes place on the hour: with one arm Death pulls the passing-bell, with the other he lifts up the hourglass. The windows open, and Christ and the twelve Apostles move across. As the windows close, a cockerel flutters and crows in the niche and the hour chimes. A Turk shaking his head beside the clock, a miser gazing at his moneybags, and a vain man looking at his reflection in the mirror complement the allegory. The clockface is divided into two circles. The upper one shows the movement of sun and moon, and the time. The lower circle is subdivided into 24 segments and shows Bohemian time (from sunrise to sunset) in Arabic numerals. The historical painter Josef Mánes (1820–1871) painted the scenes for the
calendar-wheel. There are twelve round zodiac pictures, grouped around Prague’s coat-of-arms, and scenes from rustic life for each of the months. The originals are in the stairwell of the Prague City Museum .
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