The Beauvais Astronomical Clock is a nineteenth-century

astronomical clock An astronomical clock, horologium, or orloj is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. Definition ...

Beauvais Cathedral Beauvais Cathedral otherwise the Cathedral of Saint Peter of Beauvais () is a Catholic church in the northern town of Beauvais, Oise, France. It is the seat of the Bishop of Beauvais, Noyon and Senlis. The cathedral is in the High Gothic style, ...

in northern France.Michelin Green Guide to France. Michelin. 2010.

History and description

The clock was built between 1865 and 1868 by

Auguste-Lucien Vérité Auguste-Lucien Vérité (21 October 1806 – 19 July 1887) was a French clockmaker, the creator of the Besançon astronomical clock and the Beauvais astronomical clock. Vérité also did pioneering work on clock synchronisation. Working for the ...

. It is 12 metres high, and 6 metres wide. The 52 dials display the times of the rising and setting sun and moon, the position of the planets, the current time in 18 cities around the world, and the tidal times. The clock also displays the

epact The epact (, from () = added days) used to be described by medieval computists as the age of a phase of the Moon in days on 22 March; in the newer Gregorian calendar, however, the epact is reckoned as the age of the ecclesiastical moon on 1 ...

(i.e. age of the moon in days on January 1) and the golden number used in calculating the date of Easter. The hours and minutes are shown in the large central face which depicts

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and the twelve apostles. An 1886 edition of '' Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine'' remarks that: "In the eyes of the neighbourhood the chief wonder of Beauvais is not the cathedral, but the astronomical clock...The mechanical part is admirable. It tells everything which any one can wish to know."

References

{{coord missing, France Astronomical clocks in France

Astronomical clock An astronomical clock, horologium, or orloj is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. Definition ...