It's About Time: The Astronomical Clock
So, I've been working on a blog post about The Thirty Years' War, the deadliest of the religious wars that tore Europe asunder and which was triggered by the second (and more famous) Defenestration of Prague, and I have a problem. Well, two problems: it's incredibly complicated (did you know Sweden had armies in mainland Europe, for example?) and incredibly depressing. Unsurprisingly, as reporters sometimes say, "the story can't write." Instead, I am shelving that post until I figure out how best to tackle it and focusing on other things for the time being.
I arrived in Prague over 8 months ago, and even though it was one of the first landmarks I saw when exploring the city, I have yet to write about the famous Prague Astronomical Clock. There is a very good reason for this: when I first arrived, it's been undergoing extensive renovations. Indeed, right now, the clock isn't there. The entire mechanism has been removed and is undergoing extensive preservation and repair. The whole thing, inside and out, won't be back to its regular state until August, timed for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. For months, I thought I would just hold off on writing about the clock until then, but, let's face it, my pictures aren't that good anyway, and it's not as if its an obscure and rarely photographed item, so, let's do this!
Situated not too far off the ground on the south side of the Old Town Hall on the Old Town Square, the Prague Astronomical Clock (Czech: orloj) is one of the wonders of the medieval world. While it's been added to and altered over the years, the original clock was built in 1410 by clockmaker Mikuláš (Nicholas) of Kadaň, working alongside astronomer and general pre-Renaissance Renaissance Man Jan Šindel. It was heavily overhauled in 1490, which is also when many of the Gothic embellishments were added. Further elements were added as recently as the 1800s, giving the clock a somewhat charming patchwork appearance.
The oldest part, the higher of the two large dials is the *actual* Astronomical Clock. You're probably wondering, "Great, but, how do I read it? It's got, like, a dozen moving parts!" Well, this is about to get really complicated, so feel free to skim when/if your eyes glaze over.
First, let's look at that outer ring of things that kind look like numbers except for when they don't. That is "Old Czech Time," and as you might guess from the name, it is old and obsolete. So, you can safely ignore that if you want to use the clock to actually tell time. Old Czech Time was based on "Italian hours", which means that, while there was a 24-hour day, the first hour began at sunset, which also marked the end of the 24th hour. This was advantageous for workers in a pre-artificial lighting era, because it meant you always knew how much time you had left before the sun went down. The type face is an old Germanic font called Schwabacher, which wouldn't be out of place on a heavy metal album cover. However, perhaps the most interesting tidbit about this ring is that, like many other parts of the clock, it moves throughout the year. Since the change of the day was tied to sunset, the 24-hour day started and ended at different "times" throughout the year--anywhere in a roughly 4-hour range. So, if you look at the two clock faces above you'll see that, in the lower picture, the Roman Number "III" on the bottom left is roughly lined up with the Old Czech 7 (which doesn't look like a 7, but is.). However, in the upper picture, it lines up roughly with the Old Czech 8. That's because the outer ring moved to accommodate for the changing time of sunset. Nifty, right?
Still with me? Good.
Just inside that ring, in Roman numerals, is modern time, in a 24-hour day format--so, 12 hours to the bottom and then 12 more hours to the top. Importantly, midnight is at the bottom and noon is at the top. If you want to know the time, the hand to look at is the one with the sun on it. So, in the picture on the left, it's roughly 2:45 pm. There is no minute hand, so that's about as accurate you can get unless it's exactly on the hour.
That sun arm (which actually ends in a shape of a hand with two fingers pointing to the time), in addition to telling the modern time and Old Czech Time, also gives a few further pieces of information. Most noticeably, its location on the off-center moving ring with all the signs of the zodiac tells you where the sun is on its ecliptic--which is the fancy word for its position in the 12 constellations which make up the zodiac. But...and this is a question I'm not sure many people think to ask...what's the zodiac?
So, imagine a universe with Earth at the center and with a series of crystal spheres surrounding it (like Aristotle taught and which was still the prevailing theory 1500+ years later when this clock was designed). On the outermost sphere, there are the "fixed stars"--essentially, what we think of as, well, stars. While they rise and set every night, they don't move in relation to each other--or, at least, we didn't think they did for a very long time. Inside that sphere, on their own individual spheres, are each of the planets, the sun, and the moon. The word "planet" comes from the Ancient Greek for "to wander," and, unlike the fixed stars, these "wandering stars" moved about in relation both to one another and to the fixed stars. Since the fixed stars were, well, fixed, it was natural to track the course of the other heavenly bodies in relation to where they were on that fixed sphere. This is where we get the idea of the zodiac for both the sun and the moon--and what it means when astrologers say that "Mars is in the House of Sagittarius" or whatever. Speaking of the which, the black arm with the moon on it indicates where the moon is in the zodiac--obvs. One final interesting tidbit before we leave the zodiac behind: the zodiac ring is place where it is and divided how it is because, otherwise, the sun arm couldn't give both accurate time *and* an accurate zodiacal reading. Imagine the math and engineering know-how required to construct such a clock. Now imagine it without any sort of computer, machine, or any other powered device. RIGHT?!?!
A few other pieces of information we can get all from this one clock face designed and first built 600 years ago. You'll notice in the image above a small arm ending in a star that is pointing straight downwards. That's for telling what is called sidereal time, i.e., time told in relation not to the sun, but the stars. I won't even try to remember how that works. There are also markings to indicate where the sun is in relation to the two tropics as it moves throughout the year. The moon sphere also moves, rotating to show what phase the moon is in any given point; this was a later addition, from a few centuries after the original clock, and is powered solely by gravity--it's unique in the world, and no-one knows who made it or exactly when it was added.
Also, to finally address why the clock face itself has multiple colors, it is painted so you always know whether it is astronomical night (black), the times around sunrise or sunset, etc., with the (as was thought) stationary Earth at the center. Of course, you might be able to tell if it's night or day by, y'know, being outside, but let's not dwell on that fact--because *how* the clock shows this is quite cool. Since night, dawn, etc. move throughout the year, there needs to be a mechanism to adjust for that fact. So, on this clock, the little sun moves up and down its arm. In the picture immediately above, it's quite far out on the arm because it's summer, and the day is longer and there is less night. In the picture on the left, the sun has retreated to the center because the picture was taken in roughly mid-late October. Again--designed and constructed in 1410.
So, have your eyes glazed over yet? I promise the rest is simpler.
Everything else around the clock was added later. The second large dial, below the clock proper, is a calendar, presumably added during one of the major overhauls of the clock--perhaps as late as 1659.
The calendar dial rotates, with the day at the top being indicated by the metal pointer. On the inside are 12 pastoral scenes, depicting the 12 months, and inside that are the signs of the zodiac. The outer ring, which tells you the precise day, features both the actual date, but also the saints' feast days and other fixed holidays, using what was a common mnemonic device wherein the names of the feast days were swapped out for words that had the same syllable in a rhythmic poem--sort of a religious version of "King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti." Since that was how people remembered the days--using the poem--it's the words to the mnemonics that are on the calendar, not the actual names of the feast days, which makes it all but unreadable to anyone who doesn't know the poem. Sometimes the past truly is a foreign country.
We're at the fun bits now, so if you've been skimming, welcome back!
Tourists visit the clock whenever they visit Prague, but the ones who want to get the full experience come at the top of the hour, between 9:00 am and 11:00 pm, when the clock puts on a little show, pretty well captured in the video above. You see, even by the 1600s, the clock was almost certainly a point of local pride so, even after the Gothic decorative embellishments had been added, people wanted more, and so sometime in the 1600s (the history of the clock is often rather vague) 4 symbolic figures were added, representing Vanity, Avarice, an Ottoman Turk (a perennial enemy at the time), and Death. At the top of the hour, Death rings its bell, calling the others to their end--and they shake their little heads in refusal. But that *still* wasn't enough, so, right around the time the Constitution was being adopted in the US (1789), after another major reconstruction of the by this point 300-year-old clock, more figures were added. Two little doors open above the clock, and wooden figures of the Twelve Apostles show themselves to the crowd. Now, one could argue that these almost-cute religious symbols, designed to impress and entertain visitors and residents alike, have little to do with the almost unbelievable mathematical and engineering prowess that was the original astronomical clock, but I digress.
As with anything that lasts hundreds of years and has some mysterious origins, there are many legends around the clock, most of a familiar sort: for example, it has been said that if the Prague Clock stops for too long, it will bring catastrophe to the whole nation. Indeed, the clock did stop for about three years, after it was damaged in the Prague Uprising of May 1945, which saw fighting throughout much of the city as its citizens took up arms against the Nazis who had so casually annexed their country 7 years previously. Most of the original wooden decorations and much of the workings were damaged or destroyed, but in 1948, the clock came back. It always comes back. 600 years--let's hope it has at least 600 more.
Become a Patron!
Enjoying the blog? Want more information about history? Culture? Travel? Or just some general silliness? Then support the Prague Blog for $1/blog post and get access to the Prague Cast, a (roughly) weekly 15-minute podcast. Recent episodes covered topics such as seeing Shakespeare in Prague and local holidays. It's fun! Curious? Listen to a sample episode here.
 |
| Did someone say time? |
I arrived in Prague over 8 months ago, and even though it was one of the first landmarks I saw when exploring the city, I have yet to write about the famous Prague Astronomical Clock. There is a very good reason for this: when I first arrived, it's been undergoing extensive renovations. Indeed, right now, the clock isn't there. The entire mechanism has been removed and is undergoing extensive preservation and repair. The whole thing, inside and out, won't be back to its regular state until August, timed for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. For months, I thought I would just hold off on writing about the clock until then, but, let's face it, my pictures aren't that good anyway, and it's not as if its an obscure and rarely photographed item, so, let's do this!
 |
| I have never seen it look like this. It must be very impressive! |
Situated not too far off the ground on the south side of the Old Town Hall on the Old Town Square, the Prague Astronomical Clock (Czech: orloj) is one of the wonders of the medieval world. While it's been added to and altered over the years, the original clock was built in 1410 by clockmaker Mikuláš (Nicholas) of Kadaň, working alongside astronomer and general pre-Renaissance Renaissance Man Jan Šindel. It was heavily overhauled in 1490, which is also when many of the Gothic embellishments were added. Further elements were added as recently as the 1800s, giving the clock a somewhat charming patchwork appearance.
 |
| Center left the clock, just off the Old Town Square. Everywhere: tourists. |
The oldest part, the higher of the two large dials is the *actual* Astronomical Clock. You're probably wondering, "Great, but, how do I read it? It's got, like, a dozen moving parts!" Well, this is about to get really complicated, so feel free to skim when/if your eyes glaze over.
 |
| Aren't you glad we switched to digital? |
First, let's look at that outer ring of things that kind look like numbers except for when they don't. That is "Old Czech Time," and as you might guess from the name, it is old and obsolete. So, you can safely ignore that if you want to use the clock to actually tell time. Old Czech Time was based on "Italian hours", which means that, while there was a 24-hour day, the first hour began at sunset, which also marked the end of the 24th hour. This was advantageous for workers in a pre-artificial lighting era, because it meant you always knew how much time you had left before the sun went down. The type face is an old Germanic font called Schwabacher, which wouldn't be out of place on a heavy metal album cover. However, perhaps the most interesting tidbit about this ring is that, like many other parts of the clock, it moves throughout the year. Since the change of the day was tied to sunset, the 24-hour day started and ended at different "times" throughout the year--anywhere in a roughly 4-hour range. So, if you look at the two clock faces above you'll see that, in the lower picture, the Roman Number "III" on the bottom left is roughly lined up with the Old Czech 7 (which doesn't look like a 7, but is.). However, in the upper picture, it lines up roughly with the Old Czech 8. That's because the outer ring moved to accommodate for the changing time of sunset. Nifty, right?
 |
| Any less confusing now? Maybe? |
Just inside that ring, in Roman numerals, is modern time, in a 24-hour day format--so, 12 hours to the bottom and then 12 more hours to the top. Importantly, midnight is at the bottom and noon is at the top. If you want to know the time, the hand to look at is the one with the sun on it. So, in the picture on the left, it's roughly 2:45 pm. There is no minute hand, so that's about as accurate you can get unless it's exactly on the hour.
That sun arm (which actually ends in a shape of a hand with two fingers pointing to the time), in addition to telling the modern time and Old Czech Time, also gives a few further pieces of information. Most noticeably, its location on the off-center moving ring with all the signs of the zodiac tells you where the sun is on its ecliptic--which is the fancy word for its position in the 12 constellations which make up the zodiac. But...and this is a question I'm not sure many people think to ask...what's the zodiac?
So, imagine a universe with Earth at the center and with a series of crystal spheres surrounding it (like Aristotle taught and which was still the prevailing theory 1500+ years later when this clock was designed). On the outermost sphere, there are the "fixed stars"--essentially, what we think of as, well, stars. While they rise and set every night, they don't move in relation to each other--or, at least, we didn't think they did for a very long time. Inside that sphere, on their own individual spheres, are each of the planets, the sun, and the moon. The word "planet" comes from the Ancient Greek for "to wander," and, unlike the fixed stars, these "wandering stars" moved about in relation both to one another and to the fixed stars. Since the fixed stars were, well, fixed, it was natural to track the course of the other heavenly bodies in relation to where they were on that fixed sphere. This is where we get the idea of the zodiac for both the sun and the moon--and what it means when astrologers say that "Mars is in the House of Sagittarius" or whatever. Speaking of the which, the black arm with the moon on it indicates where the moon is in the zodiac--obvs. One final interesting tidbit before we leave the zodiac behind: the zodiac ring is place where it is and divided how it is because, otherwise, the sun arm couldn't give both accurate time *and* an accurate zodiacal reading. Imagine the math and engineering know-how required to construct such a clock. Now imagine it without any sort of computer, machine, or any other powered device. RIGHT?!?!
 |
| So, this photo was taken in late June, at about 8:00 pm. Cool. |
A few other pieces of information we can get all from this one clock face designed and first built 600 years ago. You'll notice in the image above a small arm ending in a star that is pointing straight downwards. That's for telling what is called sidereal time, i.e., time told in relation not to the sun, but the stars. I won't even try to remember how that works. There are also markings to indicate where the sun is in relation to the two tropics as it moves throughout the year. The moon sphere also moves, rotating to show what phase the moon is in any given point; this was a later addition, from a few centuries after the original clock, and is powered solely by gravity--it's unique in the world, and no-one knows who made it or exactly when it was added.Also, to finally address why the clock face itself has multiple colors, it is painted so you always know whether it is astronomical night (black), the times around sunrise or sunset, etc., with the (as was thought) stationary Earth at the center. Of course, you might be able to tell if it's night or day by, y'know, being outside, but let's not dwell on that fact--because *how* the clock shows this is quite cool. Since night, dawn, etc. move throughout the year, there needs to be a mechanism to adjust for that fact. So, on this clock, the little sun moves up and down its arm. In the picture immediately above, it's quite far out on the arm because it's summer, and the day is longer and there is less night. In the picture on the left, the sun has retreated to the center because the picture was taken in roughly mid-late October. Again--designed and constructed in 1410.
So, have your eyes glazed over yet? I promise the rest is simpler.
Everything else around the clock was added later. The second large dial, below the clock proper, is a calendar, presumably added during one of the major overhauls of the clock--perhaps as late as 1659.
The calendar dial rotates, with the day at the top being indicated by the metal pointer. On the inside are 12 pastoral scenes, depicting the 12 months, and inside that are the signs of the zodiac. The outer ring, which tells you the precise day, features both the actual date, but also the saints' feast days and other fixed holidays, using what was a common mnemonic device wherein the names of the feast days were swapped out for words that had the same syllable in a rhythmic poem--sort of a religious version of "King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti." Since that was how people remembered the days--using the poem--it's the words to the mnemonics that are on the calendar, not the actual names of the feast days, which makes it all but unreadable to anyone who doesn't know the poem. Sometimes the past truly is a foreign country.
We're at the fun bits now, so if you've been skimming, welcome back!
Tourists visit the clock whenever they visit Prague, but the ones who want to get the full experience come at the top of the hour, between 9:00 am and 11:00 pm, when the clock puts on a little show, pretty well captured in the video above. You see, even by the 1600s, the clock was almost certainly a point of local pride so, even after the Gothic decorative embellishments had been added, people wanted more, and so sometime in the 1600s (the history of the clock is often rather vague) 4 symbolic figures were added, representing Vanity, Avarice, an Ottoman Turk (a perennial enemy at the time), and Death. At the top of the hour, Death rings its bell, calling the others to their end--and they shake their little heads in refusal. But that *still* wasn't enough, so, right around the time the Constitution was being adopted in the US (1789), after another major reconstruction of the by this point 300-year-old clock, more figures were added. Two little doors open above the clock, and wooden figures of the Twelve Apostles show themselves to the crowd. Now, one could argue that these almost-cute religious symbols, designed to impress and entertain visitors and residents alike, have little to do with the almost unbelievable mathematical and engineering prowess that was the original astronomical clock, but I digress.
As with anything that lasts hundreds of years and has some mysterious origins, there are many legends around the clock, most of a familiar sort: for example, it has been said that if the Prague Clock stops for too long, it will bring catastrophe to the whole nation. Indeed, the clock did stop for about three years, after it was damaged in the Prague Uprising of May 1945, which saw fighting throughout much of the city as its citizens took up arms against the Nazis who had so casually annexed their country 7 years previously. Most of the original wooden decorations and much of the workings were damaged or destroyed, but in 1948, the clock came back. It always comes back. 600 years--let's hope it has at least 600 more.
Become a Patron!
Enjoying the blog? Want more information about history? Culture? Travel? Or just some general silliness? Then support the Prague Blog for $1/blog post and get access to the Prague Cast, a (roughly) weekly 15-minute podcast. Recent episodes covered topics such as seeing Shakespeare in Prague and local holidays. It's fun! Curious? Listen to a sample episode here.
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