 Visit the Prague Luxury
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Prague history: |
Prague-luxury-hotel.com
We would like invite you to a very romantic
luxury hotel for your stay in Prague.
The more you know about the city the more
you can enjoy your visit.
Prague Astronomical Clock (Old Town Horologe) |
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| The clock appeared on the tower
of the Old Town Hall before 1410, but several reconstructions modified
it. A fundamental reconstruction was carried out by clockmaker Hanus
in 1490. According a legend the councillors had Hanus blinded in fear
of his creating a similar work elsewhere and Hanus got his revenge
by stopping the machine. The truth is more prosaic: the horologe was
so complicated that after the clockmaker's death no one was able to
it moving. Not until the half of the 16th century Jan Taborsky modified
and perfected the clock machine. In the 19th Bozek's chronometr, which
still controls the run of the machine, was added. However, the basic
form of the horologe has been preserved to the present. The horologe consists of a play of puppets, a procession of the apostles, a sphaere and calendarium. The play of puppets is opened every full hour by the Grim Reaper who rings a bell, raises an hour-glass and nods to a Turk. The latter shakes his head, not wanting to go to his death. (This part from the 17th century reflects the Turkish raids.) The figures on the opposite smybolize Miserliness and Vanity. Below these puppets are situated other figures symbolizing a just rule over the city: an angel and a chronicler, an astronomer and a philosopher representing aldermen. The central sphaere of thr horologe is based on a geocentric conception of the universe - bodies pass round the Earth. A now hardly comprehensible system measures hours, days and months and indicates the position of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon and the phase through which the Moon is just passing. the calendarium is the youngest part of the horologe. On its circumference it indicates holidays, weekdays andthe dates of days in the month. The pictures painted by Josef Manes (1866) characterize the months by scenes from village life and are complemented by symbols of zodiacal constellations. |
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