The Zytturm clock

In 1385 Mas­ter Hein­rich Hal­der from Basel con­s­truc­ted the first public clock-tower clock for Lucer­ne and deli­ver­ed it to the coun­cil of the City and Repu­blic of Lucer­ne on 25th Novem­ber 1385. At the time the Musegg for­ti­fi­ca­ti­on wall was under con­s­truc­tion and the clock-tower had not yet been erec­ted. The clock-tower clock was the­r­e­fo­re instal­led in the Grag­gen tower which had its gate bet­ween Weg­gis­gas­se and Löwen­gra­ben. In 1403 the clock was final­ly trans­fer­red to the clock-tower.

In 1385 Hal­der also wro­te down ope­ra­ting ins­truc­tions for this clock-tower clock which have been pre­ser­ved in the codex of bur­gess-ship of the City of Lucer­ne repre­sen­ting the oldest known docu­ment describ­ing the ope­ra­ti­on of a medi­ae­val clock. The ope­ra­ting ins­truc­tions, the oldest of their kind world­wi­de for a public clock-tower clock, con­tain remar­kab­le facts regar­ding the assem­bly, con­s­truc­tion, hand­ling and main­ten­an­ce of the clock. Today the docu­ment can be found in the sate archi­ves of Lucerne.

In 1535 the clock-tower clock was refit­ted and Han­sen Luter, a locks­mith and clock-maker from Walds­hut and burg­her of Zurich, manu­fac­tu­red a new clock whe­re the move­ments and wheels were struc­tu­red in the same way as with Hal­der’s clock from 1385. The clock move­ment having two parts: the clock-work and the striking work. While the striking work is still the ori­gi­nal, the clock-work was fit­ted with a cor­rec­ted scis­sors escape­ment and a nine meter long pen­dulum oscil­la­ting with a rhythm of three seconds by clock-maker Suter in 1842.

The clock-tower clock strikes the hour one minu­te befo­re time (pri­vi­le­ge of first stro­ke). The­re are two expl­ana­ti­ons for this pri­vi­le­ge. When a second public clock was instal­led in Lucer­ne the older of the two was allo­wed to chi­me befo­re all other clocks. In the late Midd­le Ages and the ear­ly modern times the towns and their govern­ments strug­g­led for more inde­pen­dence from the church and the emper­or. The pri­vi­le­ge of first stro­ke of the public clock was a poli­ti­cal mes­sa­ge: It was a demons­tra­ti­on of power of the coun­cil of the City and Repu­blic of Lucer­ne by having the public clock mea­su­ring the time and striking the hour befo­re the church bells.

Sin­ce 1535 this clock has to be wound up every day by hand by the clock-maker of the city (: Zytrichter).