Orloj Donation
NCSML TV
Events
Museum Store
Donate

Buresh Immigration Tower / Orloj

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Buresh Immigration Clock Tower and Orloj

NCSML Orloj operates 9 a.m.-9 p.m. First Day of Spring (March 20) through International Students’ Day (November 17). Dates subject to change.

In 2024, NCSML celebrated its 50th anniversary of fulfilling its mission to “engage the global community with unique Czech, Slovak, and American stories to inspire individuals with universal themes of culture, freedom, democracy, and immigration.”

One of the focal points of the celebration relates to the renovation of the NCSML clock tower that was built in 1995. The existing clock tower is now repaired and enhanced with the addition of an orloj clock. The NCSML Orloj is modeled after the famous Prague Orloj that is attached to the Old Town Hall in Prague. It is the oldest, still functioning astronomical clock in the world dating back to the 15th century AD.

The NCSML Buresh Immigration Tower is going to be a major tourist attraction for the entire historic and cultural district of Cedar Rapids. This unique destination is just one more way NCSML can share the universal themes of culture, freedom, democracy, and immigration to all who visit it.

Donate to the Orloj Today

In 2024, NCSML celebrated its 50th anniversary of fulfilling its mission to “engage the global community with unique Czech, Slovak, and American stories to inspire individuals with universal themes of culture, freedom, democracy, and immigration.”

One of the focal points of the celebration relates to the renovation of the NCSML clock tower that was built in 1995. The existing clock tower is now repaired and enhanced with the addition of an orloj clock. The NCSML Orloj is modeled after the famous Prague Orloj that is attached to the Old Town Hall in Prague. It is the oldest, still functioning astronomical clock in the world dating back to the 15th century AD.

The NCSML Buresh Immigration Tower is going to be a major tourist attraction for the entire historic and cultural district of Cedar Rapids. This unique destination is just one more way NCSML can share the universal themes of culture, freedom, democracy, and immigration to all who visit it.

The Structure

This renovation includes the complex astronomical and clock mechanism called an astrolabe. All astrolabe parts that are in contact with the outside environment are made of stainless steel. The astrolabe graphics, such as numbers, lines, and symbols, are gilded with 24-karat gold. The renovation also includes 12 figurines (each almost 4 feet tall) on two carousels that awaken on the hour to mesmerize viewers who can watch them rotate to the music of Czech composers Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak. The twelve figurines express the stories of immigrants, with a farmer, a coal miner, a meatpacker, and other sculptures representing those who came to the United States from Czech, Slovak, Moravian, and other lands.

The Figurines

1. The Farmer – well built, healthy man in his thirties with rolled up sleeves and a wide-brim hat. This image was visualized in Hospodář published in Omaha, Nebraska on Wednesday, July 31, 1901 (XII, No. 12), representing predominantly the Czech settlers in the US in the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century with their farming plans and ambitions.

NCSML Donor: The Zrostlik Family

2. The Coal Miner – hard-working, well-built man with full bushy moustache, bright white “piercing” eyes and coal mining hat with an attached lamp was published in NYPL digital collections as a Slavic coal miner in Pittsburgh district in 1910, representing numerous stories of Slovak immigrants settling in the United States at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

NCSML Donor: Slovak Honorary Consuls

3. The Meat Packer – healthy, hard-working, 30- to 40-year-old man, with white long-sleeve shirt (sleeves rolled up to above the elbow) with full length leather apron, tall black boots and a large butcher knife in one hand in a raised position, working for the T.M. Sinclair & Co. Packing House in the early years of the Cedar Rapids packing house in late 1800s.

NCSML Donor: Jeanne Vogt

4. The Blacksmith – 40-year-old man with full moustache in dark color overalls, with one hand holding a hammer above the anvil and the other one holding the tongs with a horseshoe. The figurine serves as a tribute to the many Czech and other settlers in the 19th century that brought their metalworking skills to the new country. Their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit helped build many structures and machinery as well as industrial companies that still exist today providing advanced manufacturing jobs for many.

NCSML Donor: The Zrostlik Family

5. The Woman in Kroj – 25-year-old, healthy and athletic woman with both hands on her hips, happy and joyous, proud of her heritage, wearing a beautiful, colorful KROJ from Moravia displaying great dedication and respect towards the cultural heritage associated with the Slovak, Moravian, Bohemian and other homelands.

NCSML Donor: Children and Grandchildren of Pauline Horacek Jasa

6. The SOKOL Female Gymnast – young, fit and athletic woman with white, sleeveless V-neck blouse with Sokol logo centered on the blouse, wearing black sneakers with white socks. One hand holding the small ring slightly above the head, the other hand is down behind her back. The figurine demonstrates the legacy of the SOKOL physical education organization started in the second half of the 19th century, which continues to the present times.

NCSML Donor: The Hamous Family

7. The Ice Harvester – 30- to 40-year-old, well-built, hard-working, muscular man, with short curly hair, handlebar moustache, in long black pants with suspenders and Panama style brim hat, gazing down at his work, while his hands grasping tongs handles, lifting the block of ice. The figurine pays tribute to the second-generation immigrants setting up their successful businesses in the new country, in this particular instance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

NCSML Donor: David and Lijun Chadima

8. The Accordion Player – 50+ year-old man, wearing a distinctive Slovak, Janosik hat, a white shirt with long sleeves, blue vest, long black pants and leather shoes. The man is smiling with a joyful facial expression, looking out onto a crowd, while holding a piano accordion. The figurine shows tribute to the mixed family representatives, in this case the first-generation immigrant with a very strong joint Czech and Slovak identity.

NCSML Donor: Cecilia Rokusek and Robert Petrik

9. The Merchant – 45-year-old man with trimmed full moustache and with a white shirt with collar, bowtie, vest, and a golden chain for a pocket watch, is wearing a suit – matching pants, jacket and vest. A very confident, dominant posture expressing confidence demonstrates successful stories of local businessmen, in this case the owner of a store in 1907, originally located at the corner of C Street and 16th Avenue SW, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

NCSML Donor: Czech Honorary Consuls

10. Nun / Teacher – a young female nun in full habit, the black robe is with long blousy sleeves, squared at elbows, hands are locked, covered by ends of sleeves. The figurine shows a female nun teacher in 1911, demonstrating the legacy of the Sisters of Sts. Cyril and Methodius from Danville, PA, established in 1909 to mainly educate the young Slovak immigrant generations and take care of orphans in the new country.

NCSML Donor: David Rafaidus and Miriam Potocky

11. The Woman with a Child – 25-30 years old, healthy, vibrant Moravian woman in the style of F. Uprka, with red skirt, tall black boots, red vest, white blouse, puffy elbow level sleeves, all in an opulently decorative style. Her hair is covered by the head piece which is a sign that she is married. The woman is gazing right at the child and the child is styled in a similar way to the mother, together presenting the strong family bond and the beauty of the folk costume (KROJ) at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

NCSML Donor: Sharon Schweitzer

12. The Polka Dancing Couple – young couple, not strangers, but a dancing couple with relationship or dance partnership with captivated gaze and smile locked together. Both of them are wearing their beautiful folk costumes, the man is dancing with a great hat and the woman’s head is not covered with a head piece (she is not married), but her hair is in pony tail nicely decorated with rich ribbons.

NCSML Donor: John and Chris Naxera

Partners

Andrej Harsany of Bratislava, Slovakia, sculpted the 12 figurines, and the SPEL Company from Prague, Czechia, who is engaged with the development and production of clock electronic systems, reconstruction, and maintenance of outdoor clock types, was building the fully digitized inner workings of the NCSML astronomical clock. The GEMA company from Prague supplied a complete mechanism for the movement of Orloj figurines, for the doors covering the windows, and also the software solution for controlling these sculptures and the astrolabe. Neumann Monson Inc., with offices in Iowa City and Des Moines, was the project architect and Graham Construction of Cedar Rapids was the construction manager.

The Sundial

Fabricated by the same team behind the NCSML Orloj, SPEL Company, with close collaboration with NCSML partners Neumann Monson Architects and Graham Construction, the sundial adorns the 16th Avenue face of the tower, beneath the Czechoslovak wolfdog sculpture. Gilded with 24-karat gold, as is the case of the Orloj astrolabe graphics (numbers, lines, and symbols), the sundial will tell the time of day when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the sun in the sky. The horological device consists of a dial and a gnomon, which casts a shadow onto the dial.

Sundials belong among the earliest types of timekeeping devices; they were popular for centuries and continue to be important means functionally and decoratively.

The time is determined by the position of the shadow of the diagonal stick between the hour lines. A sundial can only tell the time when the sun is shining on the wall. For this wall, it is in the maximum range of 5 to 14:30 hours.

The sundial indicates the true local time. This differs from the standard CST time. This is because the movement of the Earth is not regular. The reading from the sundial must be corrected using a graph. The Cedar Rapids habitat is not located on the mid-meridian of the time zone, and therefore the time variation due to the influence of longitude is included in the time correction. The blue area corresponds to the period when the sundial is delayed. To determine the CST time from the time read on the sundial, we have to add the number of minutes for the day according to the graph. The biggest time deviation occurs on February 11, when the sundial is delayed by about 21 minutes (it shows about 21 minutes less) and we have to add 21 minutes. On the other hand, on November 3rd, the clock is about 10 minutes ahead of CST (it shows about 10 minutes more) and therefore we have to subtract 10 minutes. During the period of summer time, we have to add an extra 1 hour.

From the position of the shadow of the ball placed on the stick, the calendar period can be approximately determined. The shadow of the ball falls into the calendar marked in dark blue. It draws calendar lines for entering the zodiacal sign. The relevant signs are marked with zodiac symbols. The upper hyperbola corresponds to the winter solstice (Capricorn sign). The line in the middle of the calendar corresponds to the equinoxes (Aries in spring, Libra in autumn). The lower hyperbola corresponds to the summer solstice (the sign of Cancer).

Questions?

319.362.8500 
info@ncsml.org