Houses with a dial: huge cuckoo clocks from Germany
Houses with a dial: huge cuckoo clocks from Germany

Video: Houses with a dial: huge cuckoo clocks from Germany

Video: Houses with a dial: huge cuckoo clocks from Germany
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Huge cuckoo clock from Black Forest, Germany
Huge cuckoo clock from Black Forest, Germany

A small house hanging on the wall, from which a bird periodically appears, is a well-known symbol of antiquity and a happy childhood. What happens if a mechanical nest grows to the size of an ordinary house? This is not a fantasy, there really is a huge cuckoo clock. For example, in southern Germany.

For the first time, the idea to create a mechanism that would imitate the trills of birds every hour, thus measuring the time, came to the mind of the scientists of the Hellenistic era, about five centuries BC. Gradually it was brought to life. Some clocks were supplied with plates and bells, in others a small door was periodically opened, and moving figures of people were shown. And yet these were very distant ancestors of modern mechanisms. First of all, because they were clepsydras, that is, the clock was powered by water.

Park in Schonachbach. Tourists who do not want to wait for the clock to strike can walk around the building and, throwing a coin into the machine, call the cuckoo on their own
Park in Schonachbach. Tourists who do not want to wait for the clock to strike can walk around the building and, throwing a coin into the machine, call the cuckoo on their own

In the Middle Ages, King Charlemagne of the Franks received a mechanical clock with a bird that sang every hour from the Arab Caliph as a gift. European masters took note of the oriental invention. Most often roosters "lived" in their watches, which is quite logical: it is by the cries of this bird that the time has traditionally been determined for a long time. But gradually the cuckoo "evicted" the rooster from the mechanical "chicken coop" (this is the nature of these birds - you can't change it). And if this had not happened, we probably would have written today about a watch with a rooster.

Huge clock in Höllsteig
Huge clock in Höllsteig

By the cries of the cock they recognized the time in the present, the cuckoo was asked to tell about the future. What did humanity get in the end by giving the clock a new mistress? The illusion that it tamed the feathered Cassandra, subordinated the sacred time of being to everyday household needs. But even an illusion is sometimes useful if it strengthens the spirit.

"Kukushkin house" in Niederwasser
"Kukushkin house" in Niederwasser

The modern look of the house, in the attic of which the cuckoo nests, the clock acquired only at the beginning of the 19th century. Before that, the bird was constantly in sight, but now it appeared only from time to time, reported what time it was, and hid back into the house.

Huge clock from St. Goar
Huge clock from St. Goar

The birthplace of cuckoo clocks is usually considered the southern region of Germany - the Black Forest. Therefore, the first watches had a design copied from local buildings. And then the process went in the opposite direction - and already in the image and likeness of mechanical "cuckoo nests" all over the Black Forest built a huge clock, from which a bird periodically flies out.

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