Historic clocks

Two turret-clock mechanisms once operated in the local town-hall tower. Displaying them in a museum separates the timekeeping device from the building itself. This distinction matters: a tower clock is often associated with its externally visible face, while the mechanism is the technical part behind the display.

Indoor clocks are presented alongside the tower mechanisms. Historic guild statutes distinguished between makers of large and small clocks: the first group made tower clocks, the second clocks for interiors. Making a clock involved several crafts, not just the work of a clockmaker. The device had to keep time while taking a form appropriate to its setting and use.

Together, the two groups present clocks as both technical and decorative objects. Both aspects are present in the collection, although their relative importance varies between types. Scale provides a useful point of comparison, from the mechanisms of a public town clock to domestic furnishings. The two surviving town-hall mechanisms link this history of craftsmanship to a particular building in Nová Baňa.