Town Clock at the Eastern Gate of Domažlice - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

The Romans didn't write 4 as IV because they read the Letters I and V as J and U. And JU were the first 2 Letters of their God Jupiter. So they didn't want to write 1, 2, 3, God, 5 and so on. Instead they wrote 4 as IIII.

In the 14th Century King Charles V of France (1338 - 1380), called 'The Wise' told his royal Watchmaker to create a new Clock for a Church. The Watchmaker came with the Clock but the dial had a IV as 4. King Charles decided per decree that IIII be the only valid Type of Writing the 4 on Clock Dials.

Also since the middle Ages the IIII is chosen due to symmetrical Reasons. By using IIII as 4 all Types of Numbers as used equally often (each I, X and V-Numbers are used 4 times).

Nowadays many Watchmakers are bypassing this Issue by placing the Date display at the Place of the 4.

Taken together all Town Clocks and Church Clocks both Types of writing the 4 are nearly used equally, but the IIII outweighs the IV.


I thought this interesting Information is worth being mentioned. Plus the Fact that this Town Clock is located at a Tower which is more than 700 Years old, according to Internet Sources (eg here (de), here(en) or here (cz).

Status: Working Display: Mounted Year built: Not listed Web link to additional info: Not listed

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