Today is the first Sunday of March, which means some museums in the city offer free admission. (Like last month's post about the Museum of Military History.) I went to 2 museums today, which I'll blog about in 2 different posts.
I went to the Clock Museum/Uhrenmuseum, which you can check out here. The website says there are 3,000 clocks in the museum, housed in foundation walls dating back to the Middle Ages. "At the stroke of every full hour, three floors re-echo with chimes, sounds and carillons from the many clocks that are kept working. They document the measurement of time and the technology of horology from the fifteenth century until the present day."
Another website here says there are 1,200 watches and clocks; I didn't stop to count them, so I don't know or care how many there are. :-P The site also says that the museum has been housed in this building since 1921, in the "Harfenhaus" (Harpist's House), one of the oldest houses in Vienna.
Yet ANOTHER website says the museum used to be known as the "House of Ten Thousand Watches". Here's a quote from the site: "During the war, the museum was closed, the precious watches packaged and brought to various castles in Lower Austria. The intention of saving the possession of this rare valuables by this shift was, however, only partially achieved, the Vienna Clock Museum suffered heavy losses. A number of watches, if not the most valuable, have been found in part due to anonymous reports again."
At any rate, it was a cool museum, so enjoy my photos!
This is an astronomical clock.
This is a picture clock, which I think is ridiculously cool! See the clock "painted" on the right? It was a real clock! (I want one!)
I'm sure he must have been considered adorable in his time, but to me, he's irritably creepy...
This big guy is a music box, made in 1850.
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