Discover Torre dell'Orologio

Mauro Codussi's design integrates the clock face, the astronomical dial, and the bell-striking Moors into a single vertical composition, unusual for combining a timekeeping instrument with a triumphal-arch-like gateway at street level. The two side wings, added slightly later, are lower and plainer than the central tower, keeping the clock face as the composition's clear focal point.

The clock mechanism sits behind the astronomical dial, a blue and gold face marked with Roman numerals for the hour and a separate ring showing the zodiac and moon phases -- a level of astronomical detail typical of major public clocks in this period, when a clock's accuracy and sophistication were themselves a mark of civic prestige.