Royal Castle

Pl. Zamkowy

When the Royal Castle was completed in 1622, the grand reveal coincided with the installation of a mechanical clock adorning the central tower. Depending on which source you believe, this was created either by the Warsaw watchmaker Jan Sulej, or by Gerardo Priami before being transported from Florence.

Consisting of four copper dials and gold-plated numbers, it was heavily damaged just three decades later during the Swedish Deluge. With the castle strafed by the Luftwaffe on September 17th, 1939, the clock stopped ticking at precisely 11.15 that very day – three-years later, it was destroyed altogether when the Nazis obliterated the Royal Castle.

There the story could have ended were it not for the dogged campaign to rebuild the castle. When the project was finally rubber stamped on January 21st, 1971, the reconstruction of the clock became paramount. Comprising of around 400 individual mechanical parts, and made using 14 tons of gold, the clock finally chimed into life amid emotional scenes at 11.15 on July 19th, 1974.

House Under The Lion

Rynek Starego Miasta 13

Originally dating back to 1428, the House Under The Lion has undergone scores of facelifts in the centuries since, each of which has lent their own imprint on the building’s façade. Passing through the hands of councillors, royal regents and mercantile bigwigs, embellishments have included a gilded bas-relief of a pair of lions, Gothic niches, decorative gables and colourful polychromes depicting medieval scenes. Authored by Zofia Stryjeńska, these were added between 1928 and 1929.

When the building was restored following wartime devastation, Tadeusz Przypkowski was recruited to add a sundial to its frontage. Premiering in 1954, its features include four symbols of the Zodiac: Aries, Cancer, Capricorn and Libra. Reputedly, these reflect the winter and summer solstices, and the spring and autumn equinox. Able only to tell the time from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. due to its position, some regard this as one of the most beautiful timepieces in the entire city.

The Simonettich Tenement

Rynek Starego Miasta 15

It is the most elaborate clock of all that has the least compelling story. Regarded as one of the Old Town’s most photographed features, the timepiece tucked underneath the arching niche of the square’s south-east corner was added in 1953. Perched between a plaque commemorating the area’s reconstruction, and a gargoyle holding a bell between its teeth, the clock’s design is credited to Jerzy Brabander, an architect whose other projects include the reconstruction of the Neo-Gothic Szustra Palace in Mokotów and the public square at the foot of Lublin Castle.

New Town Square

Rynek Nowego Miasta 6 / 8 / 10

Less-visited than the Old Town, Warsaw’s New Town harbours a wealth of wacky sights and hidden details – and yep, these include a clock. In an area festooned with strange animal reliefs, surreal sculptures and exuberant polychromes, perhaps the most baffling detail of all is a western-facing sun dial incapable of giving accurate readings due to the trees that block the light.

Built in 1955 to a design by Jacek Gajewski and Włodzimierz Wapiński, the shaded building is one of Warsaw’s great little secrets. As for the clock, its presence is possibly best explained by the fantastic Gnomonika website. “What are these mysterious numbers,” asks the page of the random numbers that decorate the clock. “These are the apparent hours determined by the invisible sun – it’s as if they say that time passes even when you can’t see it on a clock.”

Mariensztat Clock

Mariensztat 19

Warsaw’s first post-war housing estate was created as a prototype settlement based upon a Socialist Realist template. Simultaneously inspired by the small-town architecture of 17th and 18th century Poland, Mariensztat’s pastel-coloured buildings and cobbled streets make it an engaging area to explore, and a sedate tonic from the crowded Old Town. Filled with eccentric touches, these include a clock-mosaic on a house that took just nineteen-days to build.

Inspired by the impressionist style, the mosaic was a joint enterprise between Jan Seweryn Sokołowski and Zofia Czarnocka-Kowalska and depicts the night as a forlorn figure wearing a dress decorated with stars, and the day as a more cheerful golden-clothed figure with a dove at its feet.

The Clock Museum

Piekarska 20

It’s likely you’ve never heard of the Museum of Artistic and Precision Crafts, and even less likely you’ve visited – open only by prior arrangement, it’s one of Warsaw’s more obscure attractions. Informally known as the Clock Museum on account of its ample collection of 18th and 19th century clocks, it’s perhaps fitting that the building’s front is decorated with an elaborate clock that’s a paean to craftsmanship.

Having been destroyed in 1944, the current property was completed in 1951 and decorated with a mechanical clock whose principal point of interest is a mosaic designed by Wacław Makowski. Made using porcelain waste, and evoking associations with the solar system, it’s a dazzling work whose other notable elements include copper and gold-leaf zodiac signs. Fully renovated five-years ago, the clock springs into life on the hour when its plays the first bars of a poem by Maria Konopnicka called The King Went To War – for years Konopnicka lived close by.