Everybody is familiar with Berne’s clock tower: the federal capital’s defining land- mark and a tourist magnet. When it was erected at the start of the 13th century, as a fortified tower, the building marked the western edge of the city of Berne. As the city grew, the tower moved closer to the centre, where it became redundant as a fortification. During the 15th century, it was used as a prison and subsequently as a clock tower – Zytglogge – and was re- built from Berne sandstone. From then on, its clock dictated the time for the entire city and became the point of refer- ence for measuring the travel times indi- cated on the hour stones along the cantonal roads.

In the 16th century, the tower gained its present-day height and a new clock. Be- neath this, in the archway, the edicts and ordinances of the City of Berne were posted and, from the 18th century on- wards, the measures of length were af-fixed for official inspection. When the tower underwent further alterations in 1770 and 1771, it was incorporated fully in the cityscape and adapted to its envi- ronment with the addition of baroque embellishments.

The Zytglogge tower owes its national and international fame not only to its eventful history, but also to its special ca- rillon, the ring of bears, lions, a rooster and the god of time, Chronos.

The Kazansky tower depicted on the Russian special stamp may be recog- nisable from afar but it isn’t the tower itself that is famous … In fact, the tower is the most imposing feature of Kazan- sky station, one of Moscow’s eight largest stations. The station was built in 1862 and, initially, was nothing more than a small timber building without a waiting room or platform. Two years later, the wooden building was dis- mantled and, in its place, a stone sta- tion building was erected.

The new station building fell short of increasingly stringent requirements; it was too small and of little architec- tural merit. When the railway line was extended further eastwards to the large Volga city of Kazansky – which gave the station its name – and passen- ger numbers swelled accordingly, the station had to be expanded yet again. After various makeshift solutions and lengthy debate, in 1918 work com- menced on the construction of the present-day station building, follow- ing the nationalization of the railways. It was a huge undertaking and the sta- tion was not fully completed until 1940. Even once the building was fi- nally complete, it underwent further expansion and upgrading work which had been included in the original con- struction plans but had not been im- plemented. Among the further addi- tions were the clock tower, the under- ground terminal building for local public transport and the direct access to the underground.

Source: WOPA Stamps