Rome's Historic Public Clocks: A Walking Guide to Seventy Timepieces
Rome's municipal census has uncovered approximately seventy historic clocks located in churches, villas, palazzi, and museums, many of which have been neglected. A workshop situated on Via della Greca is dedicated to the repair of these timepieces. Notably, the restored tower clock at Palazzo del Commendatore in Santo Spirito in Sassia, constructed in the late Cinquecento, showcases a unique circular dial created by commendatore Antonio Maria Pallavicini, thanks to a donation from the Hausmann group that revived it after more than eighty years. The original mechanism of Borromini's Torre dell'Orologio (1647-1649) is housed at Museo di Roma. The first public clock in Rome, located on Palazzo Senatorio, was established in 1806, while 'l'orologio del popolo' was installed in 1412. The Pincio water clock, designed in 1867, underwent restoration in 2007 but is currently not operational.
Key facts
- Rome's municipal census counts approximately seventy historic public clocks
- A restoration workshop on Via della Greca maintains the city's historic clocks
- Palazzo del Commendatore's clock has a rare six-hour 'alla romana' dial with a lizard-shaped hand
- A Hausmann group donation restarted the Palazzo del Commendatore clock after over eighty years
- Borromini designed the Torre dell'Orologio of the Convento dei Padri Filippini between 1647 and 1649
- Rome's first public clock on the Palazzo Senatorio has marked time only since 1806
- The Pincio water clock was installed in Villa Borghese in 1873 and restored in 2007 but is not functioning
- Francesco Bianchini's Linea Clementina, built in 1702, regulated all Rome clocks until 1846
Entities
Artists
- Antonio Maria Pallavicini
- Francesco Borromini
- San Filippo Neri
- Pietro da Cortona
- Raffaele Fiorelli
- Giovan Battista Embriaco
- Antonio Bedetti
- Gioacchino Ersoch
- Carl Wedekind
- Francesco Bianchini
- Carlo Maratta
- Filippo Luigi Gilj
- Livia Montagnoli
- Pope Gregory XVI
- Pope Clement XI
- Pope Pius VII
Institutions
- Comune di Roma
- Palazzo del Commendatore
- Complesso Monumentale di Santo Spirito in Sassia
- Biblioteca Lancisiana
- Convento dei Padri Filippini
- Oratorio dei Filippini
- Chiesa di Santa Maria in Vallicella
- Museo di Roma
- Palazzo Braschi
- Palazzo Senatorio
- Basilica dell'Ara Coeli
- INPS
- Il Tempo
- Direzione Generale delle Poste Pontificie
- Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
- Artribune
- Hausmann
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Vatican
- Borgo Santo Spirito
- Via della Greca
- Rione Ponte
- Piazza del Campidoglio
- Villa Borghese
- Pincio
- Viale dell'Orologio
- Piazza Colonna
- Palazzo Wedekind
- Piazza della Repubblica
- Piazza San Pietro
- Paris
- Turin
- Gianicolo
- Palazzo Rondinini
- Via del Corso
- Quirinale
- Palazzo del Quirinale
- Via del Governo Vecchio