For almost 500 years, a TIC-TAC has resonated without discontinuing in the heart of the old town of Bern. It comes from ZYTGLOGGE, a tower that houses one of the rare astronomical clocks still in working order and entirely mechanical in Europe.
“Listen to the ZYTGLOGGE beats,” said the Domenico Bernabei guide, inviting to grasp one of the metal bars connected to the gigantic mechanical heart composed of gears, strings and counterweights. At each tick-tac, we perceive the tremor of the bar under the palms.
This building is the pride of the city of Berne, including the historic center – including ZYTGLOGGE – has been listed since 1983 as a UNESCO World Heritage. And this is probably one of the few buildings on the list on which we can urinate. Indeed, the north wall has been equipped with a urinal in service for over 100 years. But this is certainly not the most important curiosity linked to ZyTGLOGGE. Rather, it is its clocks, one of which is astronomical.
Badaudes that pass by chance and who know neither his history nor its functioning might not understand how extraordinary the structure they observe. All this is activated by a unique mechanism that can be admired solely by appointment. Domenico Bernabei is not only one of the city guides that accompanies tourists inside the tower, it is also one of the four people responsible for raising this complex mechanism. “I do not know how many people in the world exercise this job. It is an honor that Berne gives to our team,” he said.
Each day, in turn, the team members turn the crank that raises the weights that transmit the energy necessary for mechanics. The reassembly must be carried out as much as possible every 27 hours. Unlike other similar engineering works still active, the Bern Zytglogge still works exactly as when inauguration in 1530.
The Nuremberg specialist
At the beginning of the 16th century, Berne wished to display his wealth and underline his rupture with the Catholic Church which, until the Protestant Reformation, had the quasi-monopoly on the clocks that punctuated the daily life of the population. The city therefore decided to command the construction of a new astronomical clock to a German. At the time, the best watch engineers were indeed in Nuremberg. This is where Kaspar Brunner came from. At the heart of the tower, for three years, he drew, designed, forged gears, put up and dismantled his masterpiece several times. With meticulousness, it noted the shape of each component, so that it can be easily forged and replaced in the event of a breakdown.
As one can imagine, all this is quite noisy. But even in a country where silence is gold, the noise of Zytglogge is a din to which the inhabitants of the surroundings are attached. “It is very rare, but it sometimes happens that one of us forgets to have exchanged its usual turn with someone who is on vacation, and the zytglogge stops,” says Domenico Bernabei. But what is great is that the inhabitants of the neighborhood immediately call us to ask us what happened. It is clear that, like the AAR, the Zytglogge is a symbol of the city very appreciated by the Bernese and the Bernese.
Zeno Zoccatelli et thomas Kern (SWI)