08/07/2025
โTime changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.โ
Thomas Hardy
The Prague Astronomical Clock, the medieval clock was installed in 1410 and is considered to be the oldest operating Astronomical Clock in the world.
The Prague astronomical clock or Prague Orloj (Czech: Praลพskรฝ orloj [praสskiห orloj]) is a medieval astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
The oldest part of the Orloj, the mechanical clock and astronomical dial, dates back to 1410, when it was created by horologist Mikulรกลก of Kadaล and Charles University professor of mathematics and astronomy Jan ล indel. The first recorded mention of the clock was on 9 October 1410. Later, presumably around 1490, the calendar dial was added and the clock facade was decorated with gothic sculptures.
Formerly, it was believed that the Orloj was constructed in 1490 by clockmaster Jan Rลฏลพe (also called Hanuลก); this is now known to be a historical mistake. A legend, recounted by Alois Jirรกsek, has it that the clockmaker Hanuลก was blinded on the order of the Prague Councillors so that he could not repeat his work; in turn, he disabled the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next hundred years.
In 1552 it was repaired by Jan Tรกborskรฝ (1500โ1572), master clockmaker of Klokotskรก Hora, who also wrote a report of the clock where he mentioned Hanuลก as the maker of this clock. This mistake, corrected by Zdenฤk Horskรฝ, was due to an incorrect interpretation of records from the period. The mistaken assumption that Hanuลก was the maker is probably connected with his reconstruction of the Old Town Hall in the years 1470โ1473. The clock stopped working many times in the centuries after 1552, and was repaired many times. The legend was used as the main plot in the 2008 animated film Goat story โ The Old Prague Legends.
In 1629 or 1659 wooden statues were added, and figures of the Apostles were added after a major repair in 1787โ1791. During the next major repair in the years 1865โ1866 the golden figure of a crowing rooster was added.
The Orloj suffered heavy damage on 7 and especially 8 May 1945, during the Prague uprising, when the N***s fired on the south-west side of the Old Town Square from several armoured vehicles in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy one of the centers of the uprising. The hall and nearby buildings burned, along with the wooden sculptures on the clock and the calendar dial face made by Josef Mรกnes.
After significant effort, the machinery was repaired, the wooden Apostles restored by Vojtฤch Sucharda, and the Orloj started working again in 1948.
The Orloj was renovated in autumn 2005, when the statues and the lower calendar ring were restored. The wooden statues were covered with a net to keep pigeons away.
The last renovation of the astronomical clock was carried out from January to September 2018, following a reconstruction of the Old Town Tower. During the renovation, an electric clock mechanism that had been in operation since 1948 was replaced by an original mechanism from the 1860s.
Photograph: Steve Collis from Melbourne, Australia โข CC BY 2.0
