Zimmer tower

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Detail view of the Jubilee clock

The Zimmer tower Dutch: Zimmertoren is a tower in Lier, Belgium, also known as the Cornelius tower, that was originally a keep of Lier's 14th century city fortifications. In 1930, astronomer and clockmaker Louis Zimmer (1888-1970) built the Jubilee (or Centenary) Clock, which is displayed on the front of the tower.

The tower was built no later than 1425 though the precise date of construction is unknown. In 1812 the tower was sold by the municipal authorities, but after World War I, they repurchased it and slated it for demolition. However, in 1928 watchmaker Louis Zimmer presented to city, his work, the anniversary (Dutch: Jubelklok), which consists of 12 clocks encircling a central one with 57 dials. These clocks showed time on all continents, phases of the moons, times of tides and many other periodic phenomena. It was decided to place this new design in the old tower, which had to be substantially reconstructed for this. In honor of the astronomer they renamed the tower the Zimmer tower.

Full view of tower

In 1960 a pavilion for the new clock was built next to the tower to present Zimmer's masterpiece the wonder-clock. (Dutch: Wonderklok) (these wonder-clocks were prepared for the 1935 world exhibition in Brussels; later they were demonstrated in the USA). Around one of these dials moves the slowest pointer in the world - its complete revolution will take 25800 years, which corresponds to the period of the precession of the earth's axis. Subsequently Zimmer attached to the clocks a mechanical planetarium. The wonder-clocks impressed Albert Einstein, who congratulated Zimmer with the creation of these unusual mechanisms.

On the small square at the foot of the tower an exhibition of the solar system was arranged with the aid of metallic circles and the rings (circles designate the sun and planets, rings the orbits of planets). These also show asteroids Felix (№ 1664) and Zimmer (№ 3064), which were named after Felix Timmermans and Louis Zimmer when discovered in 1929, and 1984. In 1980 the tower obtained the status of state protected monument. Now the Zimmer tower and pavilion with the wonder-clocks is a museum.