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Museum Tower of the Clock
MEDIEVAL CLOCK
On February 26, 1386, the clock was already on the northwestern tower of the magistratex s municipal building; on May 31, 1839 it was given by the city to the parish of Saint Andrews on occasion of the demolition and reconstruction of the ancient city palace. The maestro Aldo Bullo, an expert in medieval contraptions, has with the patience of Job reconstructed the whole history of the clock and the watch-makers, by sifting through the cityx s historical archives. A valuable contribution was given to the valorization of this x living fossilx thanks to the efforts of Professor Ettore Pennestrì, of the Mechanics Department of the University Tor Vergata in Rome with a thesis by final year student Ana Rivero Mediavilla and Eng. Marisa Addomine, president of the Italian Registry tower Clocks. The clock was undergone some changes throughout the centuries, the most significant one being the insertion of the pendulum after Galileo; the original structure, practically unaltered, is divided into two parts: -the front part with gears which mark the time; -the back part with gears which sounds the hours. In 1424 the main clock gear underwent some repairs to repair four teeth. There is no reason to doubt that it was builts by the Dondi, great watchmakers and makers of sophistical mechanical devices (see x Astrariox , one of whose reproductions, the work of the Astrario Group of Chioggia, is found in the local City Museum); the x dog-legx placed in the last part of the four side uprights appears to be a x trade-markx which may be identified as belonging to the Dondi family.
Testi di da Aldo Bullo, Dino Memmo e Giovanna Bellemo |
The name TOWER OF THE CLOCK intends to highlight the uniqueness and characteristics of this museum housed in the thousand-year-old bell tower of Saint Andrews.
Approximately thirty meters high with a base width of over one meter and twenty centimeters, of Roman-Byzantine origins, it was utilized as a beach and sighting tower.
Restored in October of 1997, with the positioning of its various floors and safety measures put in place, it was inaugurated and opened to the public as a vertical museum on September 16, 2007.
The museum itinerary winds up through various floors, allowing the visitor to synthetically learn the history of the town, of Saint Andrews church and of the tower of the clock .
The tower s history and its various uses throughout the centuries are briefly told through some documents from 1339 on found at its entrance; the ancient iron cross, which dominated the town from the top of the tower until 1912, now welcomes the visitor.
In the first and second floor there is a collection of maps of the city, of Saint Andrews church and its tower, maps originating from local and provincial historical archives.
From the third floor the historical itinerary is enriched by testimonies of faith and popular piety, such as the collection of many votary offerings dedicated to the Madonna dell Addolorata and the precious stole given by Venice s patriarch Cardinal Artistide Naccari (originally from Chioggia), a parameter which he received as a gift from Pope Pius X.
A matrix route , which tells of the Madonna s seven pains (the originals are exhibited in the Diocesan Museum), and the ancient Via Crucis of 1906 complete the brief religious tour.
The medieval clock (a contemporary of the one in Salisbury, England), the feather in the museum s cap and the origin of its name, remains the crowning achievement of an itinerary through time marked by a succession of astronomical information and an astrolabe which accompanies the visitor on a historical-temporal journey. 
