Elgin clock tower

Elgin Clock Tower
Inscription relating to Lord Elgin’s clock, now in the collection of the National Historical Museum, Athens
General information
Status	Destroyed
Type	Clock tower
Location	Athens, Greece
Address	Roman Agora
Demolished	1884
Owner	Municipality of Athens
Known for	First public mechanical clock in Athens

The Elgin Clock Tower was a public clock tower erected in Athens between 1811 and 1814, donated by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. It stood in the area of the Roman Agora of Athens near the Library of Hadrian and was among the first mechanical public clocks in the city. The tower was destroyed in a fire in 1884, and only fragments of the clock mechanism and inscriptions survive.

Museum label reading - In 1814, Lord Elgin (Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin), after the looting of the famous sculptures of the Parthenon, offered the city of Athens a striking clock. It was placed in the tower erected by the Municipality of Athens, in an effort for it to be called the “Clock of the Market” and not the “Clock of Elgin”, since it was not pleasing to Athenians to be reminded of Elgin’s other actions (I. Gennadios). On a marble slab from the Acropolis, the following inscription was engraved in Latin: Thomas, Count of Elgin, gave a clock as a gift to the Athenians. The Municipality of Athens and the citizens erected and set up the tower in the year 1814. The “Tower of Elgin” dominated the area of the Library of Hadrian, in the religious, commercial and administrative center of the city. It was destroyed in the great fire of the market in 1884.

References

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