Oh, so my beautiful face is too much for you? Geez, I'm so sorry, I'll give you a break from it today and will instead describe to you the splendor of Prague's famous Astronomical/Astrological Clock like I promised.
Thank me later.
With a Christmas gift.
Or a birthday gift (it's coming up and you'd know that if you were a good friend).
So. The clock.
That is the clock.
I'll describe it from the bottom to the top because as I'm writing this, I can see the bottom of the picture best. I offer you a warning. This post is mostly void of my dry hilarity because most of my descriptions come directly from my most recent published work.
Enjoy.
Now, when you're in the square, looking at the clock, it is surprisingly close to the ground. Every noteworthy clock I've seen has been up in a tower or high on the side of a building for all to admire from afar. This clock is much closer to the people. I think that if you were tall and had good jumping skills, you could probably touch the bottom ring of the lowermost portion that you see there. You would't be able to reach the figurines for sure, but the lower etchings of the bottom of the circle, maybe.
So now that you have scale of clock-dom in mind, here is the low-down on this wicked cool piece of clockwork. This timeless timepiece of medieval ingenuity has been ticking away in its unusual nature for over 600 years and is the only one of its kind still working. Every hour, on the hour, there are masses of people who all gather together to watch the 20 second show and listen to the medieval trumpet player in the tower echo across the square.
The lower-most portion of this 600-year-old mechanical marvel is the astrological calendar; there are symbols around the circumference that represent the months of the year. What you see there on the face is a replica. The original, dating back to 1805 by the painter Josef Manes, can be seen on the stairway walls of the Prague Museum of History.
The center section represents the astronomical movements of the sun and moon relative to the sunrise and sunset of Prague. This clock shows three independent movements: the sun's revolutions around the Earth (the common belief at the time the clock was built), the orbit of the moon around the Earth and the ecliptic cycle of the stars. The colors on this section are also relevant, with the horizon represented where the orange and blue segments meet, daylight on the left, twilight on the right and night in the lowermost dark circle.
The uppermost portion of the clock is to represent the balance within a Christian heart. On either side of this clock face are four moving statues representing the threatening vices of medieval Prague: vanity, hoarding, death and pleasure. Below the clock face are four immovable figures that represent medieval virtues: a chronicler, an angel, an astronomer and a philosopher. Directly above the center of the clock are the 12 apostles, and as every hour passes, they pause to give their blessings upon the city as the skeleton, who represents death, tolls the bell as it chimes the hours across the square. Then above the two doors where the apostles pass, there is a gold statue of a rooster. After the hours toll, he crows a crow that can only be heard to fully appreciate. I wish that I had a sound clip for you but I don't. Imagine a party horn mixed with a deflating balloon and a wheezing farm animal. Something like that...
There's the rooster, ain't he cute, oh, and some of the cheery apostles hosting their blessings upon the city. That rooster's crow really is hilarious! Go to Prague.
Next time, I'll be showing you more sights of the city...I'll probably turn on the humor again, so don't fret.
Until next time! (insert image of me giving you a gangster peace-out...if I had a pic of me doing that, I'd post it but I promised you no more of my face today...I'm a good word-keeper and promise-hold-up-to-er)
No comments:
Post a Comment