A single metallic clang rings across the Prince Alfred Courtyard of the Grand Masters’ Palace in Valletta, six years after the towering Pinto Clock went silent. Undaunted, the St John’s Co-Cathedral clock chimes at a quarter past the hour.
Built in 1745 overlooking one of the two internal courtyards at the Grand Masters’ Palace, some 150 years after the Co-Cathedral was completed, the Pinto Clock was installed with hemispherical – rather than conventional cup-shaped – bells.
This made them quieter, so as not to compete with the Co-Cathedral’s clock. Only eight other nested bells are found in the Maltese islands.
The clock is Grand Master Manuel Pinto de Fonseca’s imprint in time. Built to represent the highest authority in the country, it served as an attraction in itself.
It features four copper-laminated figures representing Moorish slaves holding hammers, which sling sideways when striking the bells. In those days it was popular to depict Muslim slaves in works of art to symbolise the Order’s triumph.
The clock’s limestone façade is adorned by an overlapping of pilasters and arches distinguished by their proportions and characteristic profiles and details, meant to support a triumphant finial displaying four clock faces.
Conservation coordinator Josef Aquilina said Pinto Clock is one of the most elaborate clocks. Compared with similar clocks from the same era, it encapsulates a lot of information and the typically baroque “theatrical decoration”.
Pinto’s Clock has four dials. The middle one shows the hour and the others show the lunar phase, month and day in Italian.
Few 18th century citizens owned personal clocks so they sought clocks in parish squares or public spaces like the Prince Alfred Courtyard.
Several alterations to the clock and to the palace – which used to serve as the grandmaster’s winter residence – impacted negatively on the visibility of Pinto Clock.
The wooden sheltering at the rear of the jacquemarts was erected during the British period to protect the mechanism from weather damage and to fly Great Britain’s flag up high, thus blocking the sky backdrop of the figurines.
It is believed that in 1894, Maltese clockmaker Michelangelo Sapiano modified the original mechanism – probably the work of Gaetano Vella – so that the clock would not chime at night, and therefore the wife of Governor Sir Arthur Fremantle could sleep peacefully.
Parts of the clock then developed faults over the past 60 years until the timepiece stopped working altogether in 2006. However, last November, it was fully restored.
The façade, the clock mechanism, the bells and jacquemarts were reinstated to their former glory at a cost of €120,000.
Chief architect Mireille Fsadni, who supervised the work, says Pinto Clock came complete with a room specifically built to accommodate a clock-winder who used to wind up the mechanism on a daily basis.
The reversible restoration system saw the installation of an electrical auto-winding system, doing away with daily human intervention which could lead to further damage. Ms Fsadni insists this installation did not alter the original mechanism in any way.
Another important part of the restoration process was work on the “artistically and historically precious” jacquemarts.
The restoration uncovered various details, including the feathering on the slaves’ clothes.