The Demidov Leaning Tower in Nevyansk has an 18th-century brass gear from a clock mechanism and a 19th-century hour hand from the dial of an English chiming clock. The chiming clock was purchased by Akinfiy Demidov and exported from England around 1730, since the relevant documents mentioned “a clock of English work.” In the 18th century, the clock originally had one large dial. Later, two more dials were manufactured and installed on the tower. During the restoration of the watch in the 1970s, all dials were replaced with new ones. In 2001, the fourth dial was additionally installed, facing the Nevyansk Pond.
Like before, today the clock of the Nevyansk Tower strikes every quarter of an hour, every half an hour, and every hour. Every three hours (starting from 12:00) the clock mechanism plays the melody programmed in 1985 “Hail, my Rus!..”, a fragment from Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar” (or “Ivan Susanin”).
The original gear and hand were removed to be displayed at the museum in the 1970s during the restoration. According to Nevyansk local historian Valentin Grigorievich Fedorov, the clock was made by the English clockmaker Longley Bradley, who made the chime mechanism for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The bells of the chiming clock were made in 1730 in London by Richard Phelps, and since the first third of the 18th century they have been on top of the Nevyansk Tower.
The circumstances around the English chiming clock are still unclear: starting from the Northern War (1700–1721) and until 1732, Russia and England were enemies and had no diplomatic relations. It is possible that His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov helped his close associate Akinfiy Demidov order the chimes in England. In Moscow, the Menshikov Tower had a clock with chimes from England, which struck every hour and quarter of an hour, and at 12 o’clock the bell music began to play and lasted for a whole half hour. Akinfiy Demidov knew for sure about the Menshikov Tower and its chimes because he sent “Siberian plank iron” from the Nevyansk plant to cover it.
The chiming clock on the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, commissioned by Akinfiy Demidov, is not just an amazing mechanism for the Urals and for all of Russia at that time, but also a necessary mechanism for the Nevyansk plant and its inhabitants; its chiming set the rhythm of life.
