Astronomical clock (Besançon)
Encyclopedia
The astronomical clock of Besançon is housed in Besançon Cathedral. Besançon
's present astronomical clock
, made in 1860 by Auguste-Lucien Vérité of Beauvais
to replace an earlier and unsatisfactory one made by Bernardin in the 1850s, differs from those in Strasbourg
, Lyon and Beauvais. The clock is meant to express the theological concept that each second of the day the Resurrection of Christ transforms the existence of man and of the world.
.
Bernardin had exhibited an astronomical clock in 1849 while he was living at Fougerolles
The clock he made for Besançon was exhibited in Paris in 1855, where Vérité was also exhibiting and could certainly have seen it. This clock was described in the 1958 article by René Baillaud.
Bernardin's clock may well provided a point of departure for Vérité when designing his, but apart from general inspiration no specific element seems to have been copied from the earlier one.
In 1900 the clock stopped working and was completely renovated by Florian Goudey.
In 1966, the clock stopped again on the death of Paul Brandibas, who had been its keeper for over thirty years. The Ungerer company of Strasbourg
renovated it and restored it to full working order.
Besançon
Besançon , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It had a population of about 237,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2008...
's present astronomical clock
Astronomical clock
An astronomical clock is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets.-Definition:...
, made in 1860 by Auguste-Lucien Vérité of Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...
to replace an earlier and unsatisfactory one made by Bernardin in the 1850s, differs from those in Strasbourg
Strasbourg astronomical clock
The Strasbourg astronomical clock is located in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Strasbourg, Alsace, France. It is the third clock on that spot and dates from the time of the first French possession of the city...
, Lyon and Beauvais. The clock is meant to express the theological concept that each second of the day the Resurrection of Christ transforms the existence of man and of the world.
Bernardin's clock
The first astronomical clock installed in Besançon was made between about 1851 and 1857 by a clockmaker called Bernardin, who probably came from Saint-LoupSaint-Loup
Saint-Loup is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:*Saint-Loup, Allier, in the Allier département*Saint-Loup, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime département...
.
Bernardin had exhibited an astronomical clock in 1849 while he was living at Fougerolles
Fougerolles
Fougerolles may refer to:Places*Fougerolles, Indre, a commune in the French region of Centre*Fougerolles, Haute-Saône, a commune in the French region of Franche-Comté*Fougerolles-du-Plessis, a commune in the Mayenne department of FranceSurname...
The clock he made for Besançon was exhibited in Paris in 1855, where Vérité was also exhibiting and could certainly have seen it. This clock was described in the 1958 article by René Baillaud.
Vérité's clock
By 1857 Bernardin's clock had stopped working, and Cardinal Mathieu, the Archbishop of Besançon, commissioned a replacement from Vérité, who built it in his workshop in Beauvais. The clock was installed in 1860 but work on it continued until 1863. Immediately after he finished the Besançon commission, Vérité built an even larger, and different, clock, for Beauvais Cathedral.Bernardin's clock may well provided a point of departure for Vérité when designing his, but apart from general inspiration no specific element seems to have been copied from the earlier one.
In 1900 the clock stopped working and was completely renovated by Florian Goudey.
In 1966, the clock stopped again on the death of Paul Brandibas, who had been its keeper for over thirty years. The Ungerer company of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
renovated it and restored it to full working order.
Description
The clock stands 5.8 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, and has 30,000 mechanical parts. It sits in its own room in the clocktower.- Seventy dials provide 122 indications. These include the seconds, hours, days and years. The clock is a perpetual one that can register up to 10,000 years, including adjustments for leap year cycles. The clock also indicates the times of sunrise and sunset.
- Twenty-one automated figures either ring the quarter hour and the hour, or perform the Resurrection of Christ at noon, and his burial at 3 pm.
- The clock also has animated pictures of eight different French harbours and indicates the hours and height of the tides there on dials.
- A planetarium is part of the clock and it shows the motions and orbits of the planets. The planetary motions are congruent with those of the actual planets so that the planetarium reproduces eclipses as they occur.
- Through a system of universal joints extending some 100 meters, the clock drives four dials that sit on the four sides of the cathedral's tower, thus providing the time of day to the city. A fifth dial is inside the cathedral. The outside dials also show, respectively, the season, the day of the week, and the month of the year. A repetitive movement sounds a bell in the clocktower to mark the hours.
- Eleven different descending weights drive the clock. Three of the weights need to be reset each day.