“From a historical point of view, time is years, centuries and eras, but it also measures processes and events related to national and local history”, said in her speech the director of the Regional History Museum in Razgrad Tanya Todorova at the opening of the exhibition of clock collections and calendars in the house museum “Acad. Ananie Yavashov” in Razgrad.
The exhibition “In the footsteps of time” examines the role, significance and development of the calendar and the clock from prehistory to modern times, and the idea is to provoke reflection on the value of time intertwined in the historical development of the city and the region”, also said Tanya Todorova.
The guest of the event was Tsvetana Benonova, chief expert in the “Culture, religious and youth activities” department in Razgrad Municipality. A congratulatory address was received on behalf of the district governor, Dragomir Zlatev, in which he welcomed the organizers for the idea of introducing the public in the district to such a rich collection of clocks and calendars through the exhibition.
Viktor Kostadinov, curator of the museum and host of the “Ananie Yavashov” house, said that the exhibition includes 81 items – watches, watchmaking tools and an information board on the development of calendars and watches over time – mechanical watches from the beginning of the 20th century and most modern electronic devices for counting milliseconds, seconds, minutes and hours. Among the exhibits are the wall clock from the pastry shop “Kasamakovi” in Razgrad and the alarm clock from Gani Chernev’s home.
The famous Razgrad watchmaker Ilko Kolev, who has been maintaining the clock in the Clock Tower in Razgrad for years, took a retro walk through the history of the clock. The first orientation of the ancient people in time was the stars – the navigators made their routes based on their movement. Next are sundials, the inconvenience of which is that they “work” only during the day. At the same time, water clocks are also used, which count the time according to how long it takes to empty a vessel drop by drop. Endlessly running water clocks are powered by streams and brooks. Next come the wick and lamp clocks. The revolution, however, came with the advent of mechanical watches. The invention of the balance led to the advent of pocket and wristwatches. For the era of electronic and atomic clocks to come – the benchmark for accuracy these days – to the millisecond every 100 years.
The exhibits are from the fund of the Regional History Museum /RHM/. The exhibition is part of the initiatives of RHM – Razgrad, dedicated to 135 years of museum work in the city and the European Days of Cultural Heritage and can be viewed in the next two months.
