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Marking the passage of time, the old city of Bern.

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Bern, the capital city of Switzerland, lies at the foot of the Alps in central Europe.

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It is surrounded by rivers on three sides, making it a natural fortress.

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It has long thrived as a political centre.

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The city's cathedral is 100 metres tall.

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Construction began in the 15th century and took 400 years to complete.

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From the top of the cathedral tower, people can see all of the old city,

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where the medieval townscape, inscribed as World Heritage, remains intact.

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There is an old clock shop on one street corner.

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Clockmakers, along with the industries of other skilled craftsmen, flourished in Bern.

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Otto Scherer has been a clocksmith for 50 years,

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and he is also one of the controllers of the city's clock tower.

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The clock tower standing on the main street is known as Sittklocke.

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It has been keeping time in Bern since the 16th century.

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Built-in dolls come out of the clock at noon each day to dance around and tell the time.

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The clock has a sophisticated mechanism, working with many giant cogs.

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The driving force is a simple coiled spring.

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Mr Scherer winds up the coil for 15 minutes every day,

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and he adjusts the time by changing the length of the pendulum.

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Bern used to be a major departure point for postal services and stagecoaches.

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The clock tower was used to set a standard time.

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A world-famous scientist in physics lived in the town in the early 20th century, Albert Einstein.

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He introduced his famous theory of relativity during his time in the city.

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It is said that Einstein once told his wife that,

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in my theory of relativity, clocks exist everywhere in space.

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This is the view of the clock tower from his room.

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It was maybe because of Bern, where clocks continue to tick over centuries,

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that the theory of relativity, a concept that time is not constant, could have been born.