Sundials on Landhaus Tower, Linz, Austria
Posted by: 
arby101ca
N 48° 18.242 E 014° 17.111
33U E 446992 N 5350340
On the clock tower above the Landhaus in Linz Austria are four vertical declining sundials. The original sundials were built in 1571. The current modern art versions were painted in 1954.
Waymark Code: WM86QQ
Location: Oberösterreich, Austria
Date Posted: 02/08/2010
Views: 42
The monastery of the Minor Friars (Minoritenkloesters) was built in 1564. The tower with four sundials was added in 1571. This became a provincial college (Landschateschule) from 1574 to 1600 and 1608 until 1624. The Landhaus then became the home of the Upper Austrian Provincial government and parliament. It remains a significant government building,
The original four sundials go back to 1571. They are aligned 30° off the cardinal directions, declining south 30 degrees east and 60° west for example. Prof. Fritz Frohlich repainted the sundials in 1954 as modern art.
Johannes Kepler worked here for 14 years between 1612 and 1628. He had been driven out of Graz, then Prague and finally Linz by religious wars. Here he wrote his major works “Harmonia Mundi” (Harmonies of the World or Music of the Spheres) in 1619 and the “Epitome of Copernican Astronomy” in 1618-1621. We know Kepler for his three laws of planetary movement: elliptical orbits, sweeping equal areas, and the ratio of periods squared to semi-diameters cubed. These "laws" are hardly mentioned in these major works that explore harmonic relationships and nesting of the five regular solids to explain the orbits of the planets. I recommend you read the originals. Also read “Kepler’s Witch” to get a sense of the complexities of living in those times. This is “an astronomer’s discovery of cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue and the heresy trial of his mother.”
Everything I need to know I learned from sundials.
Sundial Type: Vertical - Wall mounted dial plate
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