Description
The Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower) is the Renaissance tower on Piazza delle Erbe in Mantua, between the Palazzo della Ragione and the Rotonda di San Lorenzo: you can recognise it by its large 15th-century astronomical dial, which shows not only the hours but also the zodiac and the phases of the moon.
The astronomical clock, about fifteen metres high, is surrounded by a ring of portraits and sheltered at the top by a semicircular canopy. The dial shows the hours from I to XXIIII, and a semicircle of twenty-four segments, twelve white and twelve black, distinguishes the hours of the day from those of the night.
At the centre sits the goddess Latona, arms outstretched: with one hand she touches the disc of the lunar phases, with the other she holds a crescent moon that points to the day of the lunar cycle. A small sun travels through the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Below the clock is a statue of the Immaculate Virgin from the early 17th century, with a marble balcony of the same period. Inside, the Museo del Tempo (Museum of Time) displays the period mechanisms, and from the top you can see the whole city surrounded by its lakes.
The tower was built in 1472–1473 by Luca Fancelli, the Florentine architect in the service of the Gonzagas, on the foundations of a 13th-century building. At the end of 1473 the clock was installed, the work of the Mantuan mathematician Bartolomeo Manfredi, who was nicknamed Bartolomeo dell'Orologio (of the Clock) for it.
It was no ordinary clock. By combining its readings you could calculate the planetary hours and therefore horoscopes: people consulted it before a delicate deal, to avoid the moments ruled by Saturn and Mars.
It worked perfectly for almost a century, until it broke down in 1560, when the mathematician Francesco Filopono got it going again. Stopped since the 18th century, the astronomical mechanism only started turning again in 1989, thanks to the blacksmith and clockmaker Alberto Gorla.
The astronomical clock, about fifteen metres high, is surrounded by a ring of portraits and sheltered at the top by a semicircular canopy. The dial shows the hours from I to XXIIII, and a semicircle of twenty-four segments, twelve white and twelve black, distinguishes the hours of the day from those of the night.
At the centre sits the goddess Latona, arms outstretched: with one hand she touches the disc of the lunar phases, with the other she holds a crescent moon that points to the day of the lunar cycle. A small sun travels through the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Below the clock is a statue of the Immaculate Virgin from the early 17th century, with a marble balcony of the same period. Inside, the Museo del Tempo (Museum of Time) displays the period mechanisms, and from the top you can see the whole city surrounded by its lakes.
The tower was built in 1472–1473 by Luca Fancelli, the Florentine architect in the service of the Gonzagas, on the foundations of a 13th-century building. At the end of 1473 the clock was installed, the work of the Mantuan mathematician Bartolomeo Manfredi, who was nicknamed Bartolomeo dell'Orologio (of the Clock) for it.
It was no ordinary clock. By combining its readings you could calculate the planetary hours and therefore horoscopes: people consulted it before a delicate deal, to avoid the moments ruled by Saturn and Mars.
It worked perfectly for almost a century, until it broke down in 1560, when the mathematician Francesco Filopono got it going again. Stopped since the 18th century, the astronomical mechanism only started turning again in 1989, thanks to the blacksmith and clockmaker Alberto Gorla.