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The Bell Tower is one of the most famous monuments of Venice and the whole world, it is facing Saint Marks Square and it is the “ door” ...

...that enter into the “ Mercerie”.

This position is not casual at all, it was made to emphasize the link between commerce (Rialto), politic and religion (Saint Mark ).
The tower is a project by Codussi and has been erected between 1496 and 1499 demolishing part of the pre-existent buildings.
The watch has a quite complicate mechanism, the façade of the building is finely  decorated. The dial is glazed in  blue and gold and mark the hours, the day the lunar phase and the zodiac.
The watch has also a musical box, working only during the epiphany, it represent the three wise man and some characters on the nativity.
On the top of the tower the are the two “ mori” so called by the Venetians because of the dark colour of the statue, the old “ moro” has a beard the young one not., the peculiarity is that they indicate the wrong hour!.
Well the truth is that they don’t mark the wrong hour, the old one play 5 minutes before the hour and represent the symbol of the time already gone and the young one plays 5 minutes later to symbolize the future times.

The bell its an opera by Mastro Simone, the “ mori “ were forged by Mastro Ambrogio delle Ancore. The watch was built by Ranieri brothers, they were well paid for such a perfect masterwork
But the blinded to prevent they build other similar.
The watch has been restored, first in 1750 and lately in 1999.

To visit the tower you must book in advance a tour browsing on www.museiciviciveneziani.it .