Universal Mechanical Calendar

This ingenious calendar was designed to calculate time over 40 centuries, from the first year of the Common Era until 4000. It was built around 1831-35 by Giovanni Amedeo Plana, who was the director of the Turin Astronomical Observatory at the time. It is now found in the Sacristy. Featuring prominently in the centre are a cross and a portrait of the pope who was in office, Gregory XVI. On the sides are portraits of the enlightened rulers Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia, and Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, along with two of the “fathers” of the modern Western calendar: Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII.