Tower of the Winds

The Tower of the Winds

The Tower of the Winds or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a horologion or "timepiece". It is considered the world's first meteorological station. Unofficially, the monument is also called Aerides (Greek: Αέρηδες), which means Winds. The structure features a combination of sundials, a water clock, and a wind vane.^[1] It was designed by Andronicus of Cyrrhus around 50 BC, but according to other sources, might have been constructed in the 2nd century BC before the rest of the forum. In summer of 2014, the Athens Ephorate of Antiquities began cleaning and conserving the structure; restoration work was completed in August 2016.^[2]

Site[]

The Tower of the Winds is 12 metres (39 ft) tall and has a diameter of about 8 metres (26 ft). In antiquity it was topped by a weather vane-like Triton that indicated the wind direction.^[3] Below the frieze depicting the eight wind deities—Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Apeliotes (E), Eurus (SE), Notus (S), Lips (SW), Zephyrus (W), and Skiron (NW)—there are eight sundials.^[3] In its interior, time was determined by a water clock, driven by water coming down from the Acropolis. Research has shown that the considerable height of the tower was motivated by the intention to place the sundials and the wind-vane at a visible height on the Agora, effectively making it an early example of a clocktower.^[4] According to the testimony of Vitruvius and Varro, Andronicus of Cyrrhus designed the structure.^[5] The tower's columns bore capitals of a design now known as "Tower of the Winds Corinthian", although they lack the volutes ordinarily found in Corinthian capitals.^{[citation needed]}

In early Christian times, the building was used as the bell-tower of an Eastern Orthodox church. Under Ottoman rule it became a tekke and was used by whirling dervishes. At that time it was buried up to half its height, and traces of this can be observed in the interior, where Turkish inscriptions may be found on the walls. It was fully excavated in the 19th century by the Archaeological Society of Athens.^{[citation needed]}

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  Inside: Roof of tower

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  Inside: Floor of tower showing holes for mechanism

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  General view of the tower, from Stuart & Revett's The Antiquities of Athens, 1762

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  18th-century reconstruction of the Tower of the Winds from The Antiquities of Athens

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  Turkish dervishes in the building, early 19th century

Legacy[]

The building became better known outside Greece when details were published in London in the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens (which also described four other ancient Greek buildings). It had been surveyed by James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett on an expedition in 1751-54.

Several buildings are based on the design of the Towers of the Winds, including:

• The 18th-century Tower of the Winds on top of the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, England,
• St Pancras Church (1822) designed by William Inwood and his son Henry William Inwood, located in Euston, London. This is a unique Greek-revival church, that features two sets of Caryatids and a tower that was based on the classical Tower of the Winds.
• The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory (1865) an early astronomical observatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• The mausoleum of the founder of the Greek National Library Panayis Vagliano at West Norwood Cemetery, London.
• The 15th-century Torre del Marzocco in Livorno.
• The tower on St Luke's Church, West Norwood, in London, designed by Francis Octavius Bedford after he visited Athens on a Society of Dilettanti scholarship circa 1810.
• A similar tower in Sevastopol, built in 1849.
• The Temple of the Winds, which stands in the grounds of Mount Stewart near Newtownards in Northern Ireland.^[6]
• The Carnaby Temple near Carnaby, East Riding of Yorkshire, built in 1770.
• The Maitland Robinson building in Downing College Cambridge, designed by Quinlan Terry in 1992.
• The "Storm Tower" in Bude, Cornwall (1835), by George Wightwick

See also[]

• Anemoi
• Antikythera mechanism
• Classical compass winds
• History of timekeeping devices

References[]

Sources[]

• Noble, Joseph V.; de Solla Price, Derek J. (1968). "The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds". American Journal of Archaeology. 72 (4): 345–355. ISSN 0002-9114 – via JSTOR.

Further reading[]

• Beresford, James (2015). "A Monument to the Winds". Navigation News. London: Royal Institute of Navigation. pp. 17–19. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
• Webb, Pamela A. (2017). "The Tower of the Winds in Athens: Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims; Two Millennia of Continual Use". Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Press. 270.

External links[]

Media related to Tower of the Winds at Wikimedia Commons

• Tower of the Winds and characters sculpted on it

Coordinates: 37°58′27″N 23°43′37″E / 37.974256°N 23.7270701°E / 37.974256; 23.7270701