Lazar the Serb
Builder of Russia's first mechanical public clock in 1404.
Lazar the Serb, also known as Lazar the Hilandarian, was a Serbian Orthodox monk-scribe and horologist who built the first known mechanical public clock in Russia in 1404. The clock, which struck the hours, was constructed at the request of Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow. It was located in a tower behind the Cathedral of the Annunciation, though neither the clock nor the church have survived.
Quick Facts
- Born
- mid-14th century
- Birthplace
- Prizren, Serbian Empire
- Died
- after 1404
- Field
- Invention
- Known for
- Inventing the first mechanical clock in Russia, which was also the country's first public clock
Facts from the source article.
Life
Lazar the Serb was born in Prizren, within the Serbian Empire. He became a monk holding the rank of crnorizac at the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos, a key center for Serbian religious and cultural life. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire likely prompted him to leave Mount Athos. According to Russian chronicles, Lazar arrived in Moscow from Serbia and, at the request of Grand Prince Vasily I, built a clock on a tower in the Grand Prince’s palace, located behind the Cathedral of the Annunciation. This was Russia’s first spring-driven mechanical striking clock and its first public timepiece. Its numerals were inscribed in Church Slavonic. Considered a technical marvel, it ranked among the first ten such advanced clocks in Europe. The tower itself no longer stands, and its precise location is unknown, though it is thought to have been near or at the Spasskaya Tower. The clock operated without fault for over two hundred years, until it was eventually replaced by another clock that later burned in a fire. A 16th-century chronicle records that Lazar received 150 rubles for his work.
Legacy
The Serbian Orthodox Church celebrated the 600th anniversary of Lazar's invention and construction of the great clock tower in the Moscow Kremlin on the feast of the Presentation of Mary, 4 December 2004. Liturgies were held in Belgrade, Moscow, Hilandar, and the Monastery of the Holy Archangels. A memorial sundial was placed on the Academy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. Serbian mathematician Dr. Dragan Trifunović noted Lazar's invention as part of Serbian medieval mathematics, observing that Lazar must have known Archimedes' division of circuit tracks and estimation for forging three types of gear wheels. Along with Pachomius the Serb, Lazar is one of the notable Serbs in Russian medieval history.
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