A piece of historic craftsmanship: Peiting's old church tower clockwork is going into the Klösterle Museum
Created: 06/25/2022, 12:00 p.m
By: Barbara Schlotterer-Fuchs
The old clockwork of the church tower clock of the parish church of St. Michael in Peiting will soon be on display in the museum in the Klösterle.
The 300-kilo colossus has to be dismantled for transport.
© Hans Wörnzhofer
A piece of history, a piece of historical craftsmanship: the old clockwork of the Peitingen parish church of St. Michael will be preserved for the public in the course of the tower renovation.
After at least 195 years, it should find its way from the church tower to the local history museum.
Peiting – Hans Wörnzhofer still remembers how, as an altar boy, he wound up the clockwork of the old church tower clock in the Peiting parish church of St. Michael.
By hand, mind you.
This had to be done once a day.
Four ropes hung under the crank, each with a weight attached to it.
When cranked, the rope turned around the winch again, the weight at the bottom of the rope ensured that the striking mechanism and the clock on the church tower in the heart of Peiting were put into operation again.
The old clock mechanism has had its day for a long time, is standing around in the church tower and has long since been replaced by a new electric one.
The old clockwork is almost 200 years old and dates back to 1837. A real craftsmanship highlight.
It is about one meter by one meter tall and weighs around 300 kilograms.
A real buzz when you examine the extremely worldly-electric successor: It can be held in two hands, is small, compact - and works at the push of a button.
Museum Association is enthusiastic
Such an old clockwork: That is of course a delicacy, a historical gem that the municipality of Peiting has already missed.
Hans Wörnzhofer complained more than ten years later that the old clock mechanism was simply taken away during the renovation of the Maria Egg pilgrimage church.
When the Museumsverein Klösterle found out about it, the matter was already over.
New watch here, old movement gone.
"That mustn't happen again," says Hans Wörnzhofer, deputy chairman of the Klösterle Museum of Culture and Nature.
Then, however, expert advice is needed: The movement should be cleaned and overhauled, according to Wörnzhofer.
It is still unclear who can take over this work.
Size comparison: This is the new clock mechanism in the church tower of the Peitingen parish church of St. Michael.
It's small, quiet, and powered by electricity.
© Hans Wörnzhofer
Of course, Peiting's church custodian, Erwin Walk, opened the door to the museum association when it came to the old clockwork.
"There will be few who still have an idea of how a church clock used to work in the past," is Walk's thought.
A loan contract should seal the loan for the museum.
The fact that the old clockwork is so heavy does not prevent those responsible at the museum association from preserving such a jewel of local history for the population forever.
"This is a unique thing," says Hans Wörnzhofer, second chairman of the museum association.
The movement is transported in individual parts
With the help of the construction yard, the clockwork is to be dismantled at the top of the tower.
There was no way it would make it all the way down from the church tower in one go.
The dimensions are too bulky, the weight too enormous.
The individual parts are then transported down and first come to the construction yard for reasons of space.
When the clockwork is finally reassembled in the building yard, the jewel should be ready for transport to the museum in the Klösterle.
A showcase with stones from Calvi, which stands in front of a display wall on the stairs, has to give way.
There, the old clockwork can become a new museum attraction and remind us of the times when many an altar boy, who is now getting on in years, had to pull the strings so that the church tower clock in Peiting could ring punctually.
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