Who invented the clock with a rotating dial, where time tells the rooster and why on Nikolskaya street appeared sundial? The capital’s Committee on tourism and cultural project #mosqueteros tell the amazing stories of the most unusual and well-known watches which can be found in the capital.
the First mechanical clock on the main tower of the Kremlin — Spassky — established in the XVII century under the guidance of a master from England Christopher Holloway. The originality of his project was the fact that the clock was spinning no hands and the dial. Soon chimes in the tower began to sing a different tune.
At the end of the nineteenth century the Spassky tower decided to install a new watch. To implement the conceived, had to borrow the bell from Borovitskaya and Trinity towers and to establish the mechanism that drives the drum with musical cards. Over red square roared Preobrazhensky March.
After the revolution, the chimes began to play the “Internationale.” And later because of problems with the mechanism stopped nearly 60 years — the music was resumed only in 1996.
From the main tower of the Kremlin sounded “Patriotic song” and the melody of the chorus from the Opera “life for the Tsar” (“Ivan Susanin”) by Mikhail Glinka. In 2000, the “Patriotic song” has been replaced by the anthem of the Russian Federation.
the dial Diameter clock on the Spasskaya tower — more than six metres, length-clockwise — almost three meters, and min — 3,27 m. The mechanism moved, required the efforts of three giant weights — the heaviest of them weighs 224 pounds. It is believed that the clock on the Spasskaya tower — the world’s only fully mechanical.
the Central Telegraph building can be seen a watch that will seem old gimmick. On a black and white dial Roman and Arabic numerals, the digit 4 is not the usual mark IV and IIII. Everything is explained simply: this is how she was depicted before the nineteenth century. In the evenings, the dial is illuminated, so find the time, easy. And in former times it was enough to hear the sound — the exact time beats the bell. By the way, the clock on the Central Telegraph are recognized as the most accurate in the city.
At the Manege square there is a fountain “world Clock”: underneath the underground floor of the shopping center. The dome of the fountain is divided into 24 sectors and during the day makes a complete revolution. The divisions of the fixed bottom ring — half a dozen light bulbs: each measures five minutes. To know the time anywhere in the world, you need to find any city on the map, note the lower number, that is, the hours, multiply the number of lit light bulbs and receive five minutes.
the building of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Leninsky Prospekt for gold finial called Golden brains — but it is not the only thing attracted to him in��the Imani. There is also a watch, the history of which is quite astonishing. To decorate the Academy of Sciences decided in the mid 1980-ies, however, more than 20 years they went in the early 1990s, funds for the continuation of the work ended. Launched this watch with an original design only in 2017.
In 1970, the Central puppet theater named after S. V. Obraztsov with wonderful clockwork: every hour it yells loudly cock from the house on the facade leaves a figure of fairy-tale character and plays the melody of “In the garden, in the garden.” And at noon from their doors at the same time appear all 12 dolls. Since the installation of hours almost half a century passed, but every day shortly before noon in front of the theatre, people gather to see the real magic.
Interestingly, before the rooster to watch puppet Theatre and the crowed at night, but local residents asked to inform them of the time only in the daytime.
Height of the main building of Moscow state University is visible from afar: the famous spire — the same architectural dominant of the city, as the Ostankino tower and Stalin on Kotelnicheskaya embankment. On the four sides surround the enclosure with towers, which are decorated with thermometer, barometer and a giant clock, the largest in Europe. Count the passage of time at least eight dials the minute hand with a length of 4.2 meters and clock of 3.7 m. At a distance it seems that the watch shimmer gold, but in fact, this effect creates a Golden glass, which is fixed figures. The first few years the Rangers had every day to climb to the 25th floor, to wind the watch, but in 1957 they began to work on the electric motor.
the pseudo-Gothic building of the Synodal printing house Nikolskaya street that now houses the Historical archives Institute, decorated with a sundial. In those days, when they built housing printed, sundials have been in fashion.
