The Clock Tower will be under construction from June 2020 to June 2022.
The tower and the dial need major work: repairing the frame, removing the bells, replacing the roof, etc.
In 2022, you’ll find the tower in its medieval appearance … a good opportunity to come back and admire it!
The clock Tower was built in the 15th century on the basis of a tower from the old Gallo-Roman fortified city. First used as a prison (of earl), it was turned into a clock and belfry in 1483. A fire devastated the tower in 1825 but it was restored and largely rebuilt identically between 1891 and 1893 by the great French architect Paul Boeswillwald. Attached to the tower, a chamber hosts the clock’s mechanism which works since 1483, made by the ingenious clockmaker
Jean. The clock’s distinctive features are the two hands: the first is a solar hand (goes round the clock within 24 hours) and the second is a lunar hand which is slow of 3 quarters compared to the other. However, both hands juxtapose at midday at new moon and at midnight at full moon. The clock of Auxerre indicates at once the time and the moon phases.
Bfc 0011619 ReduiteNext to the tower is the house of a bailif made famous in a children’s nursery rhyme and sung in all the schools in France: Guillaume Roussel, better known as Cadet Roussel.
Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, 89000 AUXERRE
The Clock Tower cannot be visited, you can only admire it from the outside.
Office de Tourisme de l’Auxerrois
Tél. : +33(0)3 86 52 06 19
