Photos: Lausanne’s night watchman continues a 600-year-old vigil
Updated On Jan 20, 2019 06:42 PM IST
Every evening, the night watchman clambers to the top of the Lausanne cathedral bell tower in Switzerland and gets to work: he shouts out the time each hour, keeping a six-century-old tradition alive. Back when fire constituted a permanent threat to medieval towns and cities built in wood, he was an essential part of a network of watchmen, most of whom patrolled the streets. The night watchman, one of the last in Europe, no longer alerts this Swiss city to fires, but he does help the residents to keep track of the time.
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Updated on Jan 20, 2019 06:42 PM IST
Marco Carrara, a replacement watchman, holds a lantern as he looks out from the Lausanne Cathedral bell tower in Lausanne, Switzerland. “This is the watchman! The bell has tolled 10. The bell has tolled 10.” On a cold night in December, Carrara, who takes on the job on the permanent watchman’s days off, repeats the message hourly, only changing the number of chimes that have rung. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Updated on Jan 20, 2019 06:42 PM IST
Cupping his hands around his mouth, he allows his voice to carry across the rooftops, just as his predecessors have done every evening since 1405. All year round, from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am, the night watchman, wearing a big black hat and carrying a lantern, steps out to the bell tower railing to serve as a living clock for the people of this picturesque city on the shores of Lake Geneva. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Updated on Jan 20, 2019 06:42 PM IST
Across Europe, there were “thousands, if not tens of thousands” of watchmen, said Renato Haeusler, who holds the permanent position in Lausanne. Today, Lausanne is one of just seven European towns or cities to have maintained the tradition of a year-round watchman, alongside Annaberg, Celle and Noerdlingen in Germany, Ripon in Britain, Krakow in Poland and Ystad in Sweden. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Haeusler acknowledged that his position no longer served a true practical purpose. But “the city is very attached to maintaining this tradition,” stressed the 60-year-old, who served as replacement watchman for 14 years before taking on the permanent position in 2002. He climbs the 153 worn stone steps to the top of the bell tower to announce the time four evenings a week. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Haeusler said the job pays “well below” he going rate for nighttime work but has a second job too, lighting events and soirees in the region using wax candles. He sometimes spends his hours as a watchman dipping a wick into hot wax to make the candles. On the evenings that he doesn’t work, a replacement steps in. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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“The evenings can be quiet and quite lonely,” Carrara told AFP during one of his shifts last month. Although sometimes they can be more animated, he said, such as when “Lausanneresidents, people from the region, and even tourists have the possibility to visit the watchman.” Adding that he had been drawn to the “nobility of this task”, which runs “counter to utilitarianism”. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Marco Carrara on the Lausanne Cathedral bell tower. From his viewpoint more than 40 metres (131 feet) above the city, the watchman can observe it change with the seasons. “In the summer, it is magnificent. Swifts nest in the upper walkway. They are there in the evening, flying around,” Haeusler said. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
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Updated on Jan 20, 2019 06:42 PM IST