Prague: The Astronomical Clock

Prague absolutely took my breath away!  Even the street lamps, the old doors, and cobblestone roads were oozing with History.  Everywhere I looked there was a story to be told.  

The medieval astronomical clock adorns the southern wall of the Old Town City Hall in Old Town square. It announces every hour with 12 apostles passing by the window above the astronomical dial and with symbolic sculptures moving aside. 

The wooden figures of apostles with their attributes appear in the windows every hour, while at the same time some of the sculptures begin to move: the Death holds its hourglass and beckons to the Turkish man sculpture, which shakes its head in response. There is Vanity portrayed as a man with a mirror and Miserliness as a man with a moneybag, shaking a stick. The other statues, that don´t move, are an Astronomer, a Chronicler, a Philosopher and an Angel. When the apostles finish their journey, the golden cockerel at the top crows and quivers its wings, the bell rings and the clock chimes the hour.

The astronomical dial shows the medieval perception of the Universe: the Earth is the center. The blue part of the dial represents the sky above the horizon, the brown part the sky below it. 

(Text from www.prague.cz)

I wish the clock could have made time pass more slowly while we were in this beautiful city!