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  • Entrance of the Clock Tower, Lucca.zoom in altra finestra

Torre delle Ore [Clock Tower]

Recently restored by the municipal administration and reopened for visits, the Torre delle Ore is situated on the via Fillungo, and is the tallest in the city. In 1390, the first clock was installed which marked the hours with the simple striking of a bell; the clock-face was applied one century later. Following various modifications to the works through the centuries, in 1752 the Republic of Lucca commissioned the clockmaker Louis Simon from Geneva to construct a modern clockwork. Two years later, with the collaboration of clockmaker Sigismondo Caturegli from Lucca, a new clock-face was installed, and all of the bells were replaced, cast by the founder Stefano Filippi from Lucca.

The hours are sounded in the Roman style (from one to six) and chimed by the largest bell, while the quarter-hours are sounded by the two smaller bells. Still today, after climbing the 207 steps of the wooden stairs to the peak to admire the rooftops and towers of the city of Lucca and the surrounding mountains, it is possible to observe the eighteenth-century manually wound clockwork of the public clock, which is one of the most interesting, and still functioning specimens in Europe.

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Texts by Graziano Magrini

English translation by Victor Beard

Last update 03/gen/2008