Poznan Town Hall – Butting Goats #timesquare

This is a daily photo challenge from http://www.beckybofwinchester.com. Becky is running a daily challenge for the month of December, everything must be square and have the topic of time.

4th December.

It’s 12 o’clock, a special time for the town hall in Poznan. Look at the goats above the clock face, they appear every day and butt heads to the sound of a bugle. I enjoyed watching every day while I was in Poland, there was always quite a crowd gathered to see the goats.

Straight from Wikipedia ……

Today the mechanical goats’ butting display is performed daily at noon, preceded by the striking of the clock and the playing of a traditional bugle call. At other hours between 7 am and 9 pm the same call is played on a carillion, installed in the tower in 2003. The daily appearance of the goats is one of Poznań’s best-known tourist attractions.

A legend behind the original addition of the goats to the clock mechanism states that a cook, while preparing a banquet for the voivode and other dignitaries, had burnt a roast deer, and attempted to replace it by stealing two goats from a nearby meadow. The goats escaped and ran up the town hall tower, where they attracted the attention of the townspeople when they began to butt each other (according to some versions, this drew attention to a fire which might otherwise have done significant damage). Because of the entertainment provided, the voivode pardoned both the cook and the goats, and ordered that two mechanical goats be incorporated into the new clock being made for the building.