Meteorological Post

The 1913 meteorological quadrilateral column in front of the former Jesuit College (today’s Adalbertinum) in Hradec Králové on Velké náměstí Square was commissioned by the Society for the Beautification and Protection of the Homeland, which was made on ‘the universal request of the audience [...] in Hradec Králové.’ Zdeněk Ježek made a granite pedestal on which there is a wrought iron lattice from 1908 with astrological signs according to the designs of the director of the vocational school for art locksmiths, Rudolf Němec. In the school, the entire meteorological column was made at the cost of the material. 
 

Under the kiosk roof, there are signs of the four elements (wind, fire, water, and air). Inside the kiosk there are measuring instruments, ‘[...] By which the most important changes, namely temperature, pressure and humidity of the air, are ensured are in two cabinets facing away from the sun.’ There was a barograph, a Sixt thermometer and hygrometer in a bronze case with an enameled dial made of milk glass, and a Lambrecht weather telegraph showing the change in the dew point. There were also tables that reported ‘[...] weather behavior depending on the movement of the hands.’

In another locker included an ‘email board where the time of day is noted in several cities [...].’ On the page ‘[...] facing west, there is the coat of arms of the town and below it a plate with the inscription: Hradec Králové Beautification Association. Established by the local Imperial and Royal Technical School.’
 

The lattice s were restored in the 1970s by sculptor Josef Langer, who removed the wrought fillings of the linden leaves and replaced them with a spiral ornament.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, meteorological columns were a strong fashion wave, which, however, stopped at the end of the 1920s. Kiosks in public spaces measuring air, temperature and pressure were replaced by fast weather reports transmitted via telegraph and radio. 
 

Meteorological posts, small, usually historicist and decorative tower-like objects with instruments showing temperature, humidity, pressure and other quantities, were built as solitary objects in public space from the second half of the 19th century until about the 1930s in Central Europe (mainly in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). They were placed in front of schools, town halls, newly emerging parks, or spa promenades. Their original function was mainly to provide meteorological, educational, popularizing, and general information. The key importance of meteorological posts was primarily to beautify public spaces, to showcase the work and skill of local artists and craftsmen, and to show off the progress of the culminating industrial revolution in the form of precise and accurate mechanical weather measurement instruments. Meteorological posts were usually sponsored by beautification and tourist associations and prominent figures (factory owners or members of city councils). The idea of meteorological posts spread from the territory of today’s Austria and Germany to the Czech spa towns and villages in the 1880s. Meteorological kiosks were widely built in the Sudeten German border areas in connection with changeable weather conditions and in northern Moravia, Silesia, Liberec, or in the vicinity of Hradec Králové. 

 

JFB