The Town Hall Horloge in Prague

The Horloge (CLOCK) in Prague

_{Ali Balunywa in Prague, Czech Republic}

_{Czech Republic’s capital city, Prague, is located at the Centre of Europe’s old trading routes in the very heart of Europe. It is a city of many hills with different architectural transitions from medieval European (the Romanesque rotundas, stone Gothic churches, Renaissance frescos, majestic Baroque noble-palaces to the Historicism-style houses with the finest architectural effect) through the boring Stalinist style (modest grey slab flat identical blocks) to the present modern architecture with beautiful panoramic views around it. These different architectural styles mingle and intertwine here, and their symbiosis creates the city’s unique atmosphere.}

_{The Czechs from the tenth century A.D. made Prague the seat of Czech princes and kings and the mid-14th century, Prague was the Centre of the Holy Roman Empire and Europe’s third largest city in terms of population. It became the strongest part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of economy during the 19th century. The people in Prague included Czech, German and Jewish living together in harmony.}

_{Prague at night}

_{Prague grew bigger when it was made the metropolis of the new bigger country called Czechoslovakia Republic in 1918. Today it is a city of around one million people. It is the seat of the top-level legislative, administrative - the parliament, government, and president.}

_{In the centre of Prague in the old town square one finds the Prague medieval Astronomical Clock or Prague Orlo. It is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. It is a very popular tourist attraction both foreign and national. The Orloj is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. At the top of the hour you find many people by the clock to admire the run of the HOROLOGE.}

_{People waiting for the clock to strike the hour}

_{The clock was made in 1410 by the clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan and the astronomer Jan Sindel. The 12 Apostles of Jesus who appear every hour when the windows open were added in the 17th century. It is controlled by a very complicated mechanism from the Middle Ages. The lowest part of the horologe, the calendarium, The course of village life (12 outer medallions) and the signs of the Zodiac (12 inner medallions) are depicted on it. Situated on the sides of the calendarium are statuettes of burghers and an angel.}

_Prague

_{A complicated sphere indicating that the earth is the centre of the universe occupies the middle part of the horologe. It measures time and shows the movement of the Moon and the Sun between the signs of the Zodiac.}

_{At the top of the Horologe you find 2 small windows, which open every hour, and you see the apostles walking past and before them a skeleton, the symbol of death, tolls a passing bell by means of a rope. After the Apostles’ match past, a cock shakes its wings and crows in a niche above the small windows. There is also an allegorical statue of a Turk, obviously recalling the Turkish invasion of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and two figures representing human miserliness and vanity.}