Prague's Clock Keeps on Tickin'

Prague's Astronomical Clock is a medieval marvel that you may miss on an adventure through Europe, but definitely should see.  It covers the base of a several-storey-high clocktower in the center of Old Town Prague.

It was built in 1410 and was unlike anything the world had ever seen.  It was so amazingly impressive at the time that Prague’s ruling class found Mikulas of Kadan, the clock’s creator, and poked his eyes out so that he could never make another.  They wanted to make sure that Prague was the undisputed clock champion of the world.  My tour guide said there is a legend that Mikulas, now blind and vengeful, decided to cast a spell so that the clock would stop forever.  The clock has indeed stopped a handful of times in its history, but has been subsequently repaired.

The clock has wonderful features for all to enjoy.

At the top of the clock is an animatronic golden rooster that crows on the hour (though my tour guide said the rooster's crow is not what you'd hear in a rural barnyard - it's more of a pathetic, sputtering wheeze).  Simultaneous with the crowing is the emergence of miniature Apostles who show you the wonderful things they are holding.  They move their arms up-and-down and side-to-side joyfully, though very slowly, as they were built nearly 600 years ago.

In the center of the clock is an elaborate, ominous clock that tells the position of the sun and moon, flanked by figurines representing the vices and fears of the medieval period.  These unnerving things are (in order, from left to right):

Vanity (Represented by a man admiring himself in a mirror;  vanity is bad because it makes a person selfish)

A Jew (Who was feared because he was believed to be corrupt and greedy)

Death (In the form of a skeleton.  Nobody wants to die)

A Turk (Who would kidnap you and take you away to his mysterious foreign land)

Further down still is a circular calendar with small paintings representing all twelve months, between four sculptures of a golden sword-and-shield-wielding angel and three prophets.

This clock is the centerpiece of my favorite European city to date.