Big Ben’s older brother

The difference in age of clock brothers in Lviv and London is seven years. “The clock on Lviv City Hall was installed in 1851,” told The Day Ilko LEMKO, expert in Lviv study. “The clock that was there before that in 1848 during the Austrian Army artillery attack fell along with the City Hall bells and crashed. After reconstruction of the tower in 1851 the clock, ordered from the factory of Wilhelm Shtile near Vienna, has been performing its duty for Lvivites without fail up until now.”

Lemko says that in the 1870s and 1880s a master, whose name is unknown, took care of the City Hall Clock. However, this master remained in the history of Lviv due to his incredible devotion to his work because, according to the expert, “he took care of the clock as if it was a child.” When the clock began to lag a bit and the clock master failed to eliminate this defect, he got so upset that soon he became sick and died.

In the past few decades the timekeeper was maintained by the Bas family – father and son: in this family the profession of clock keeper is passed down from generation to generation. Lemko emphasizes the fact that Lviv Clock has remained mechanic up until now, it is important because nowadays it is an extremely rare thing: “In most of European cities clocks are digitized. Only our clock and Big Ben remain mechanical.”

Until recently, till 2000, ordinary citizens were not allowed near the Clock – the City Hall Tower was considered to be a strategic site. Now the entrance to the Hall is free, but it is not easy to get to the Clock because the tower is as high as a 12-stored building (!) and from the fourth floor of City Hall, where an elevator can take you, the visitors have to go another 255 steps up!

The weight of the “clock-case veteran” is two and a half tons. Diameter is 2.7 meters. Length of large arrow is 2.15 meters and the small one – 1.7 meters. The Clock strikes every 15 minutes and, of course, every hour. Lemko says that the sound of Lviv Clock is unique: it is alive like a human voice. There is German inscription on the big bell that says: “Sleep peacefully. We will wake you when needed!” Lvivites say if you get to the tower at the time when the Clock bell strikes, you should make a wish and it will most certainly come true!