The Old Town Hall Clock – Orloj.

Created when the Earth was the center of the universe and the Sun and the Moon and the Stars circled her in their orbits, this clock was not meant to keep us aware of the hour, but rather of our place in the grand scheme of things.

The outer ring, with the Arabic numerals, keeps Bohemian time when the twenty-four hour day began with the setting sun. The next ring inward, with the Roman numerals, keeps hourly time as we are familiar with it today. The medium blue circle in the center of the background represents the Earth. The light blue part of the dial represents the daylit sky, and is divided into twelve parts, which is believed to represent the twelve hours of daylight in Babylonian time. In Babylonian time the length of an hour changes with the seasons. The red represents dusk and the black represents night. During the twenty-four hours of the day, the sun moves around the clock (you can see it in the photo between the astrological signs of Taurus and Aries). The inner black ring has the twelve signs of the zodiac and shows the movement of the sun and the moon through the signs.

The clock was created in the 15th century. In 1410 it was made by clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan and Jan Sindel. A master clockmaker named Hanus rebuilt it in 1490 and Jan Taborsky perfected the mechanism of the clock between 1552 and 1572.

Every hour on the hour the clock performs a ritual that is observed by hundreds of people who wait for the event out on the square.

The players in the ritual are the 12 Apostles, Death, played by a skelton, The Turk, and characters that play Greed and Vanity.

The ritual begins with the Skeleton on the top right of the clock. He tugs on a rope that is held with his one hand and turns, or resets, an hourglass. The Turk shakes his head back and forth. The two blue windows at the top of the clock open and the procession of the 12 Apostles begins, first to make his appearance is Saint Peter. Once the procession of the Apostles is finished, a cock crows and the clock chimes the hour, usually to a round of applause by the spectators.

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