ZYTGLOGGE
CLOCK TOWER - BERN
Glockenspiel Clock Landmark Tour
The
question can be asked, can a straight line be drawn from a medieval
clock to the atom and space travel? A cause and effect theory one can
ponder on a flight to or from Switzerland. Every day at 4 minutes before
the
hour,
tourists in Bern gather below the famous Clock Tower, the Zytglogge,
to watch the dancing figures of the glockenspiel mechanism of twirling
bears and a crowing rooster, leading to the striking of the bell by the
bearded Chronos, the Greek god of time, a ritual which has been a center
attraction in the Swiss capital city since the 15th Century. It was while
riding on a city tram car on his way home from his job at the Bern patent
office that Albert Einstein looked back at the clock receding from him
and imagined what would happen if he were traveling at the speed of light,
the face in the tower would appear stopped while his own pocket watch
on the tram would keep ticking along.
The
beautiful medieval clock tower of Bern was first built around 1218 as
a watchtower on the western gate fortification walls of the old middle-ages
city. It was used for a time as a prison for what were called prostitutes,
but actually woman convicted of having sex with priests, Pfaffendirnen.
The walls were torn down with the expansion of the city but the tower
remained. The first mention of a clock in the tower was in 1405 and the
current mechanism created by Bern clockmaker, Kasper Bruner in 1530.
To cast the clockworks, he built forge inside the tower which remains
in the clock room near his signed and dated work, still wound by hand
and powered by the weight of a swinging pendulum (see Watchmaking
Museum La Chaux-de-Fonds) .
The
Bern Zytglogge clock actually has two faces, the main time clock and
an astronomical clock, showing the movements of the zodiac
against the
turning of the Earth represented by the black night sky, the cobalt blue
of dawn and the powder blue
sky of day. The skies are crisscrossed with golden lines of the horizon
and the tropics. The gold gilded bell striker or jacquemart who stands
high in the cupola abave the large main clock face has been clanging
the large hour bell since the 16th Century, but
the gold
added
as
seen today restored to the form it has been since 1770. The
tram cars of Bern’s modern transportation system still trundle
past the clock as they have since Einstein’s musings on his
relativity theory. On any visit to Bern you can join the crowds below
the tower
to catch the hourly show or if you want a closer look, guided tours
of the inside of the Zytglogge (Swiss Bernese dialect of German “zeit
glock”, or simply “time clock”).
Tours
The guided tours
offered meet at the clock at 2:30pm daily, last about 50 minutes and
cost 15 chf for adults and 7.50 chf for children. The tour allows a chance
climb the ancient wooden stairs to wind the clock mechanism. Inside are
miniature constructions of how the town has changed over the centuries,
a close
up at the whimsical figures of the bears of the glockenspiel,
views of the city roof tops, and a look out at all the faces gathered
for the hourly chiming of the bells, looking up to watch you watching
them watch
Chronos
swing his hammer. Perhaps
you
can even imagine Albert Einstein heading home to his apartment just
down the street (see Einstein’s
House Bern), looking back
at you, imagining you stuck in time at the speed of light. After
all, in time everything’s
relative. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Zytglogge
Tour
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SEE ALSO:
ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK OF ORLOJ PRAGUE
YORK MINSTER CATHEDRAL ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK
