Top of the World
Come dance with me! The Glockenspiel in the eponymous square in Graz leads the way. A sweet maiden and hearty lad clad in traditional costume pirouette three times a day (11.00, 15.00 & 18.00) up in the gable of the building on Glockenspielplatz square. The mechanism’s cheerful 24 bells play three different melodies. A charming, romantic show beyond compare. Enchanted and each with a spring in their step and a smile on their face, lucky viewers head off once the last note dies away. In 1884 the spirits producer Gottfried Maurer bought a house in then "Fliegenplatzl" square. On his journeys to North Germany and Belgium the businessman got to know carillons and had one installed in his house in Graz. On Chrismas Eve in 1905, the 24 bells in the iron roof turrent chimed for the first time. In 1929 Gottfried Maurer bequeathed the carillon to the city of Graz, conditional on its continued existence. In World War II the bells stopped chiming. They were used for making arms and were renewed only in 1956. So the Graz carillon plays its three melodies again, three times a day. But they are not always the same. As the positions of the 800 steel pins on the barrel can be changed. Five times a year you can hear new melodies. Alpine folk and yodelling songs alternate with Christmas carols and pleasant melodies by contemporary composers. But always the arcaded windows in the gable open to show a dancing couple in traditional Styrian costumes. The crowing culmination of the show is the golden cock raising his wings. It is a copy of the cock Gottfried Maurer saw on the city hall in Munich.
