Every morning, at exactly eight minutes past eight, the tower clock of the Catharinakerk in Roden hits. At least, according to one of our readers who lives in Roden.
To get an answer to this question, we called Gerard Smith, De Koster and manager of the church. According to him, the clock is certainly not ‘upset’, but there is a logical explanation behind the time when he hits.
But first Smith has to rectify something: “The tower of the Catharinakerk is not at all of the church, but of the church,” he says. “That was once determined by Napoleon. All churches were allowed to stay from the church community, but the towers became the property of the civil congregation.”
Those towers served as navigation points for travelers, and for Napoleon himself. “He had drawings of all church towers on paper,” Smith explains. “Suppose he wanted to go to Groningen, then he went to church tower with his army from church tower, because they stopped everything. When he came from Smilde, he saw the tower of Norg. Then followed that of Roden, then Peize and finally Groningen. That is how Napoleon found the way at the time.”
Okay, the tower and the clock are therefore not from the church, but from the municipality of Noordenveld. Yet Smith knows a lot about the clock. “The fact that the clock is not exactly at the right times has to do with the old timepiece hanging in the tower. The clock is still excited by hand every week,” Smith explains.
“But the mechanism is a bit worn out. That is why they always put the clock in the front, because he is slowly going behind during the week. Towards the end of the week he walks behind a few minutes, and so the clock stays a bit ‘rocking’. A kind of Drents fifteen minutes,” he laughs.
René Alberts is the man of the municipality who goes up the stairs every Tuesday morning to put the clock well and wind it up. “Half a year ago he always went behind a little further. Nowadays he walks a little too fast. Then I stop him for half a minute on Tuesday to make sure he runs back on time again.” How is that possible, that difference? “That just depends on what you put things with,” laughs Alberts.
The Catharinakerk in Roden is one of the oldest buildings in the village. The church was built in the 13th century, and the tower, in which the clock hangs, was built around 1500. It has since been a recognizable point in the skyline van Roden.
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