The clock tower

History

The building that we today call the clock tower was originally named the observatory tower and was a part of the first buildings constructed at KTH 1914-1917.

The observatory was used by the then school of civil engineering regarding geodetic and astronomical measurements. 

The dome, which originally was capable of rotating, sits at a height of 73.6 meters over the orginial furrow for the sluice.

Just below the dome there is a terrace with a beautiful and encompassing view over Stockholm and its surroundings.

The tower is also adorned with a clock created by the artist Ivar Johansson, who is a well known figure at KTH.

In the book "Konsten på KTH (literally the art at KTH)" (Widegren, Ragnar 1992) the following can be read about the clock:

"On a disc above the dial, there stands a young man and a young women with a clock between them.

The man is representing the sun, or the sun god, and he strikes the toll of time against the clock with his golden sword.

The woman is the moon, and she shields her eyes from the sun's rays."

There is also story about the origins of these figures:

When the school's new buildings were inaugurated, the architect Erik Lallerstedt wrote "... the sculpture of bronze on the tower... could not be finished due to the lack of funds".

Instead the figures were cast in plaster. Ten years later in 1927, right before the hundreth anniversary of KTH the figures were in quite a bad shape. 

The professor of water engineering, Wolmar Fellenius who sat in the building had the opinion that something had to be done and thus donated 10 000 kr to the school at his 50th birthday in order to make a bronze mold of the figures.

The group of figures were then inaugurated on the 19th of september 1927, the day of the anniversary. In the letter attached to the donation from professor Fellenius the following could be read: "may the sound of this clock mark good times for the schools future".

It should also be noted that the tower was the site for Sweden's first experimental television broadcasts from 1950 to 1956, when the parliament legislated on the inclusion of television in Sweden. See the following news article (in swedish) www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/stockholm/forsokssandningar-fran-kth-firar-60-ar

The original swedish historical text was written by Fredrik Liljeblad. Translation provided by Hannes Friedmann.

Tours of the clock tower

For tours of the tower, please email: kth-guidning@kth.se