The result of a delicate marriage of art and science, it was made in 1867 by Giambattista Embriaco, a physicist and Dominican priest with a passion for clockmaking. In 1873 the water clock was installed at the Pincian Hill in a cast-iron turret in the center of a pond designed by architect Joachim Ersoch. The floral style of the hands and the arboreal turret containing the clock’s movements are designed to blend seamlessly with the surrounding park. Since its inception, the hydrochronometer has not had an easy life, due to the wear and tear of time and the incivility of those who have ruined its delicate mechanisms to the point of blocking its operation. In November 2004, the ELIS Center, home to one of Italy’s most prestigious schools of goldsmithing and watchmaking, proposed to the City of Rome to take care of the restoration and subsequent maintenance of the clock free of charge.
