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17:
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Two columns have 10 dials each. The bottom eight dials show the time in different major cities around the world, including New York and San
Francisco, though without adjustment for daylight saving time, which did not exist at the time the clock was built. The two top dials on the left column show the
181:
The central part of the main body of the clock has 12 dials for parts of the civil calendar, and five for the liturgical calendars. The dials showing the civil calendar show the month, date, day, the solar element that gave its name to the day of the week (e.g., the sun for Sunday), the season, the
189:
A pyramidal arrangement of figures caps the clock. The 12 apostles form the base; two different apostles come out each hour to strike the hour. Also, every hour the three virtues, Faith, Hope, and
Charity, move, with Faith showing the chalice to Charity and Hope, which stand to her right and left.
197:
Through a system of universal joints extending some 100 metres, 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
115:, 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.
182:
sign of the Zodiac, the length of the day, the length of the night, the seconds, and the times for sunrise and sunset. One dial gives the date of Easter, and this acts as the driver for dials that present the date for five key days of the Roman
Catholic liturgical calendar.
144:
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
186:
number of solar and lunar eclipses in the current year. The two dials on the right column show the leap years and leap centuries. The hand on the leap century dial moved for the first time in 2000; it will move for the second time in 2400.
75:
A clockmaker called
Bernardin made the first astronomical clock installed in Besançon between 1851 and 1857. Bernadin is probably Constant Flavien Bernardin, born 15 January 1819, probably in Fougerolles, who probably came from
193:
At the top of the clock, at midday, Christ arises from his tomb, and at the 3p.m. he returns to it. When he arises, Mary, his mother and Queen of the world, raises her sceptre; she lowers it when he returns to his
178:(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.
118:
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.
95:
The clock he made for Besançon was exhibited in Paris in 1855, where Vérité was also exhibiting and he could certainly have seen it. This clock was described in the 1958 article by
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51:, between 1858 and 1863. It replaced an earlier clock that Bernardin had constructed in the 1850s that proved unsatisfactory. Besançon's clock differs from those in
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The clock stands 5.8 metres high and 2.5 metres wide, and has 30,000 mechanical parts and 11 movements. It sits in its own room in the clocktower. Vérité's
807:
155:
The clock also has animated pictures of seven different French harbours; dials indicate the hours and height of the tides there. One of the harbours is
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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
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week, and the month of the year. Cables from the clock activate bells in the tower that sound the quarter hour and the hour.
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84:. (This Bernardin is not to be confused with Br Bernardin Morin who during the same period constructed the
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Eleven different descending weights drive the clock. Three of the weights need to be reset each day.
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Les horloges astronomiques et monumentales les plus remarquables de l'antiquité jusqu'à nos jours
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René Baillaud: "Histoire de l'horloge astronomique de la Cathédrale Saint-Jean de Besançon",
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Rapport du jury central sur les produits de l'agriculture et de l'industrie exposés en 1849
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Rapport du jury central sur les produits de l'agriculture et de l'industrie exposés en 1849
293:
Le Quérard: Archives d'histoire littéraire, de biographie et de bibliographie françaises
63:. The clock is meant to express the theological concept that each second of the day the
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Twenty-one automated figures either ring the quarter-hour and the hour, or perform the
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Above them the statues of the archangels
Michael and Gabriel strike the quarter-hours.
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Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Besançon, procès-verbaux et mémoires
140:, those of Cardinal Mathieu, and of the cathedral appear on the front of the clock.
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Notice descriptive de l'horloge astronomique de l'église cathédrale de Besançon
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Bernardin had exhibited an astronomical clock in 1849 while he was living at
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In 1900 the clock stopped working; Florian Goudey completely renovated it.
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Guided tours (when open): 9:50am, 10:50am, 2:50pm, 3:50pm, and 4:50pm
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341:, Strasbourg, 1931, pages 62–64 (doesn't mention Bernardin's clock)
163:, French Guiana. There is an eighth animated picture, this one of
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Closed: January, 1 May, 1 & 11 November, and 25 December
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1 October to 31 March: Everyday except
Tuesday and Wednesday
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Official website: Horloge de Besançon (Monuments nationaux)
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1 April to 30 September: Open every day except
Tuesday
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M. Hanke: Astronomical Clock of
Besancon, thePuristS
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renovated it and restored it to full working order.
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Visite à l'exposition universelle de Paris, en 1855
107:By 1857 Bernardin's clock had stopped working, and
67:transforms the existence of man and of the world.
332:Horloge astronomique de Saint-Jean de Besançon
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346:L'Horloge astronomique de Saint-Jean Besançon
284:Le Canada et l'Exposition universelle de 1855
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671:Copenhagen (Jens Olsen's World Clock)
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803:Buildings and structures in Besançon
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273:Henri Edouard Tresca, Ch. Lahure:
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270:, volume 172, 1958, pages 350-367
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263:(on the clock exhibited in 1849)
152:at noon, and his burial at 3 pm.
808:Tourist attractions in Besançon
1:
798:Astronomical clocks in France
248:References and external links
719:Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio
167:, where the former emperor
86:Ploërmel astronomical clock
29:Besançon astronomical clock
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318:, Besançon, 1861, 36 pages
20:The astronomical clock in
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457:
511:Versailles (Passemant's)
157:Saint-Pierre, Martinique
744:Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué
451:Žibřidice (Chaloupka's)
739:Richard of Wallingford
676:Dubrovnik (Bell Tower)
150:Resurrection of Christ
113:Archbishop of Besançon
82:Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse
65:Resurrection of Christ
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754:Auguste-Lucien Vérité
344:P. Brandibas-Goudey:
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37:Auguste-Lucien Vérité
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729:Nikolaus Lilienfeld
686:Lier (Zimmer tower)
558:Clusone (Fanzago's)
427:Astronomical clocks
378: /
326:pages 457, 486, 525
253:Bernardin's clock:
43:designed and built
583:Venice (St Mark's)
382:47.2336°N 6.0308°E
304:, 1855, volume 1,
302:L'Ami des sciences
295:, volume 1, 1855,
49:astronomical clock
33:Besançon Cathedral
25:
22:Besançon Cathedral
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288:pages 271 and 326
71:Bernardin's clock
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599:Bern (Zytglogge)
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337:Alfred Ungerer:
334:, 1909, 30 pages
312:Vérité's clock:
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109:Cardinal Mathieu
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97:René Baillaud
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31:is housed in
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709:Paul Behrens
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165:Saint Helena
138:coat of arms
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700:Clockmakers
592:Switzerland
385: /
330:R. Goudey:
132:Description
93:Fougerolles
78:Fougerolles
47:'s present
792:Categories
734:Jens Olsen
506:Strasbourg
370:47°14′01″N
240:, page 502
126:Strasbourg
53:Strasbourg
635:Leicester
537:Stralsund
373:6°01′51″E
225:Citations
496:Ploërmel
481:Besançon
476:Beauvais
324:, 1862,
306:page 456
297:page 401
286:, 1856,
279:page 398
261:page 502
259:, 1850,
169:Napoleon
61:Beauvais
45:Besançon
41:Beauvais
777:Commons
573:Messina
563:Cremona
553:Brescia
532:Rostock
527:Münster
520:Germany
486:Bourges
441:Olomouc
277:, 1855
161:Cayenne
145:sunset.
681:Gdańsk
625:Exeter
568:Mantua
469:France
446:Prague
322:Cosmos
176:orrery
111:, the
59:, and
645:Wells
578:Padua
546:Italy
501:Rouen
194:tomb.
691:Lund
655:York
604:Sion
491:Lyon
206:Open
57:Lyon
27:The
174:An
88:).
39:of
794::
99:.
55:,
35:.
419:e
412:t
405:v
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