Belgium · 15th century
The Zimmer tower (Dutch: Zimmertoren) is a tower in Lier, Belgium, also known as the Cornelius tower, that was originally a keep of Lier's 14th-century city fortifications. In 1930, astronomer and clockmaker Louis Zimmer (1888–1970) built the Jubilee (or Centenary) Clock, which is displayed on the front of the tower, and consists of 12 clocks encircling a central one with 57 dials. These clocks showed time on all continents, phases of the Moon, times of tides and many other periodic phenomena.
In 1980 the tower became a state-protected monument.
Text adapted from “Zimmer tower” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Zimmertoren ranks #1,599 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #15 of the 128 mapped in Belgium. Founded 1425, it is older than 49% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,782 times in the last 60 days, more than 88% of the atlas. 13 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Antwerp, 16 km away. See how Belgium compares in the castle statistics.
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