Clock of Santa Maria del Fiore - Florence, Italy
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 43° 46.389 E 011° 15.334
32T E 681527 N 4849150
The unusual clock of Santa Maria del Fiore is displayed over the main door to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Il Duomo) in Florence, Italy.
Waymark Code: WM11Z7N
Location: Toscana, Italy
Date Posted: 01/15/2020
Views: 3
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The clock above the main door inside the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, a.k.a.the Duomo, is the only one of its kind in still working in the world. The square clock is 470 cm on a side and was made by Paolo di Dono (1397–1475) who was known as Paolo Uccello from 1436 to 1443. The clock has a single hand emanating from a gold star in the center. The face has Roman numeral from 1 to 24, I to XXIIII. The corners are each decorated with the images believed to be the four gospel writers Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. So far it appears to be an unusual but not unique.
However the hand runs counter-clockwise from I to 24 and is you compare the time to a modern watch it seems off by several hours. The reason is that the clock tells time in an unusual way - hora Italica ("Italian time"). A day would begin sunset continue for 24 hours and then end a sunset. Thus the clock gives the hours until sunset. In the default picture taken around 4 pm the time reads XXII (22) meaning there is two hours to sunset.