Brno's astronomical clock has balls

Brno's 'astronomical clock' (Brněnský orloj) is unusual among landmark civic timepieces, because it doesn't actually tell the time. Neither it is astronomical, except perhaps for its construction cost (12m crowns, about half a million euros). But since it opened in 2010, it's become a familiar sight in the city's main square, Náměstí Svobody.

The black, smooth, cigar-shaped monolith gives no clue as to the hour. Except once a day. At 11am, it clicks and whirrs and releases a golfball-sized glass sphere into one of four slots at random. Tourists wait there, hoping for a free lucky souvenir. (You can buy the spheres, which come in various designs, in tourist info centre and gift shops.)

The daily event commemorates a 1645 incident during the Thirty Years' War. Brno's bells deliberately tolled noon at 11am, a move which for various clever reasons wrong-footed the occupying Swedish army and led to the liberation of the city from siege. Brno's clock is something of a standing joke among local - a 6m-high standing joke - because of its phallic appearance. It's not the only monument with such associations in the place, either.