Clock Tower in Campobello di Mazara
The Clock Tower in Campobello di Mazara, located in the heart of the historic centre, is the symbol of this town.
It was built at the expense of the public administration in 1859 and inaugurated on 6 March 1877.
The tower is an imposing square-based structure about twenty meters high. At the top stands the municipal clock, which has a dial on each side, and is thus visible from every part of the city. Externally it presents floral and eclectic motifs: the rosettes with leaves and flowers of the clock, the stone balustrade with tracery, the single-lancet windows with arches and corbels, the frieze with triglyphs and the flowered metopes. There are also two bronze bells which are accessed via a spiral staircase: the bell that rings the hours comes from the Royal Palace of Palermo, the one that rings the quarters was cast in Campobello di Mazara in 1874 and is the work of artists from Burgio .
The clock machinery was originally of a mechanical type: the winding was carried out every 24 hours by means of a lever which was connected to four large rollers which wrapped a hemp rope, to the ends of which four large blocks of marble were tied . A century after its construction, the machinery was replaced with an electronic one.
