Clock Tower of Plovdiv, Ottoman clock tower in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The Clock Tower of Plovdiv rises 17.5 m on Danov Hill (Sahat tepe), a hexagonal stone and brick shaft with a lower square base covered in graffiti. Its lower half is rough and weathered, the upper part plastered white with arched recesses near the top, and it is capped by a green-glazed faceted roof. The tower has no dial; time is struck on a bell.

A wooden clock tower with a mechanism by the Italian Antonio Barbagelata stood here from the late 16th century until a fire destroyed it around 1800. The present stone tower was begun in 1809, as an inscription on its wall records, and finished in 1812, modelled on lighthouses. In 1883 a clock made in Vienna was installed; the tower was repaired in 1909 by builders from Bratsigovo.

The tower's bell, cast by Georgi and Viktor Limonov of the old Plovdiv Veliganov bell-foundry family, weighs 60 kg and hangs inside the shaft. Because there is no dial, the hours are announced by its strikes, with a preparatory stroke five minutes before each hour. The Italian mechanism carries a plate reading BARBAGELATA ATONIO GENOVA.

The tower stands on the northern of the two summits of Sachat tepe, also called Danov Hill, west of Plovdiv's three central hills. The site is reached on foot; the surrounding park was landscaped in 2013. There is no dial, so time is read by the bell strikes rather than by sight.

The tower has no dial at all: time is announced by a 60 kg copper bell cast by Georgi and Viktor Limonov of the Veliganov bell-foundry family. The mechanism strikes a preparatory blow five minutes before the hour, then the full hour, and at 12 o'clock it sounds twenty-four times instead of twelve.