Clock-tower (Grevena)

The Clock-tower, the most iconic monument in Grevena, is orientated at the city centre, in Eleftherias Square. According to the testimony of Ioannis Lambridis, a native intellectual of Epirus, written in 1880, Nouri Agas renovated the clock-tower, the structure of which was built in 1776 by his ancestors and destroyed in 1821 by the Ottoman army, during the war against the toparch of Grevena, Veli Aga, ally of Ali Pasha. The tower, which functioned as a minaret of a mosque before the liberation of Grevena, is now considered as one of the five preserved Ottoman buildings of the kind in Greece.

The current shape of the clock dates back to 1906. The tower is in a pentagon building shape, with a side length of 2 m and a height of more than 20 m, consisted of three parts: the base, the tower body and the roof. The base is built alternately out of coarsely carved stones and in equally sized plinth zones. The tower body is made out of brick. It has three successive rows of windows and an indoor spiral staircase leading to a wrap-around terrace (balcony) out of iron railing. At the balcony level, the building turns into a brick-built turret with clocks on each side connected to the roof bell. The conical-shaped roof leans on five arches while there is a small wind turbine (shape of a small aeroplane) at the top.

The renovation in the tower in 1969 altered in great measure its original shape due to the covering of the masonry and the brickwork with modern and mismatched building materials. Recent researches show that a new clock mechanism -now lost- was purchased in 1954 by a company in Piraeus and was restored after the end of the restoration process. The tower was restored and again maintained in 2009; the subsequent coatings were removed, the foundations were reinforced and the tower was lit up again.

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Accessibility: Accessible for people with reduced mobility.