This is a multi-tasking tower. It is a bell tower, a monument, and a clock tower.
This latter function was not working too well until recently, as the clocks had stopped. Because watchmakers are becoming a very rare breed, and maintaining large clocks like this is an expensive business, the City Council battled to sort out the problem. Luckily the funds and expertise finally came together and the clocks are now running like.... well.... clockwork!
Here is the mechanism that drives the clocks, taken from way up inside the tower.
(By the way, if you look at the pillars around the top of the tower, in the top photo, that is where the bells you saw yesterday are installed. Between the pillars and the clocks, you can see arched windows, it is through these that we photographed the views to E W N and S)
wow....that is quite a clock and its inner workings.....
ReplyDeleteLove the campanile pix! We have one that is incredibly similar on the UNI campus here in Iowa. Reminds me of home...
ReplyDeleteDiane
This is a lovely shot! I love the angle, and the colors are so crisp against that amazingly blue sky! Great photo!
ReplyDeleteVery impressive building! Beautiful tower indeed!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they got them fixed...I would hate to think it was only the right time twice a day.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for showing the interior mechanism inside the campanile. I've photographed many exteriors, but never climbed one. Bet you were sweating when you reached the top :)
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