Snapshot of Prague Part 9

Hi again folks,

With the sunshine now with us we walked slowly back to the Old Town Square passing these renound beautiful cars.
One of the cars for hire near the Old Town Square 1,200-Czech Crowns is about £34.

Expensive shop window with a selfie of us both.

Back in Old Town Square was the "House of the Stone Bell" on the right. You can see the bell on the corner of the building?

Church of St. Nicolas above, looking down on Old Town Square with it's two towers looking like rockets.

Back to my beloved Astronomical clock in the square and a bit more information of it's working.

The lower is the calender dial, giving signs of the Zodiac and the months, it has a pointer at the top to show the month.

Trying to get my head around this clock, according to the camera it was 10.25 am.

The figures on the main clock are, on the left of the clock face Vanity with the mirror and Greed a Jewish money lender. On the right are Death a skeleton and the Turk, a symbol of lust. All these figures move before the hour and were covered discretely in chicken wire to keep the birds off.

Beside the calender dial to the left is the Philosopher and the Archangel Michael.

On the other side of the calender dial is an Astronomer with his telescope and the Chronicler with his tablet. 

The purpose of the clock was not to tell the exact time but to show the supposed orbits of the Sun and Moon around the Earth and show the movement of the Sun and Moon through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. This was of great importance to 16th century Prague.

At the top of the clock arch is Peter's Faucet and below two door which open in the hour to reveal  

St Paul and 11 of the Apostles going past the doors.

Hope this helps to explain this magnificent clock of over 600 years.

More to come, regards, Mike