In the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, there is a large liturgical clock that since 1443 has marked the hours of the day and night in a very different way than we are used to.

The clock is one of the very few in the world that marks time with the Italic Hour system, that is, it marks the hours from dawn to dusk following the rhythm of the seasons, and advancing the single hand on the dial in a counterclockwise direction.

The twenty-fourth hour is not midnight but the time when the sun sets, while midday coincides with an hour that varies between 4 and 7 pm depending on the season.

“Paolo made, in color, the sphere of the hours above the main door

inside the Church, with four heads in the corners colored as a fresco”.

Vasari wrote in his Lives.

It was the Florentine painter Paolo Uccello who painted the clock face, which is located about 15 meters from the floor when entering the Cathedral with your back to the altar. The face is made up of a fresco measuring over 4 meters per side with 24 segments with Roman numerals from one to twenty-four. On the sides are four heads of men with halos; according to some they are Prophets, others the Four Evangelists.

The hand is shaped like a comet and moves to the left.

The cadence of the clock hand comes from the bells of Giotto’s Bell Tower which ring six times a day, marking the moments of the day in Florence.