Astronomical clock

This clock on the town hall tower in Prague, was made in the 16th century and is called the astronomical clock. The clock was meant to show where the sun and moon were in their orbit around the Earth (as was believed then), the outer medieval Arabic numerals measure old bohemian time and the Roman numerals show modern day time. The blue part is split into 12 sections to measure Babylonian time. The click also shows the sun and moon moving through the 12 signs of the zodiac.

At each hour, tourists rush to gather below the clock to see as the clock strikes the hour, a figure of a skeleton pulls a rope opening the 2 blue windows above revealing 12 moving sculptures of the apostles which in turn come to the window. A golden cock crows at the hour and then the clock chimes.

We went to see the clock on the hour a few times today and each time it was very busy. We took a guided tour inside and saw the apostle sculptures close up- they are much larger than I thought from watching from below.

This evening after dinner we went to the absintherie to try some absinthe (for the 1st and last time- it was disgusting!) and dropped by the clock on our way home. Around the clock was still busy with tourists even at 11pm! At the end of the apostles doing their show, the crowd started clapping and some drunk Americans started shouting "encore, encore!" It was quite funny to see a large group of mainly drink tourist clapping at a clock. It is very impressive that it works after all these years.