IMPORTANT DATES

1493: Work begins on the construction of the clock (clockmaker Zuan Carlo Ranieri);

1495: The Senate decides to install the clock at the beginning of the Merceria on land belonging to the Procuratori de Supra;

1496: Work begins on the tower (attributed to Mauro Codussi);

1497: The bell, the work of master ironworker Simone is cast and the Giants, work of Ambrogio delle Ancore, are put in place;

1499: February 1st the clock tower is inaugurated;

1500-1506: Pietro Lombardo is enlisted to build two side wings, demolishing the pre-existing Procuratorie Vecchie. The colonnades remain open so that the covered passageway continued as far as the Calle del Pellegrino;

1717: The two side wings are sold and an area beneath the left hand wing is closed;

1751: Restoration work entrusted to Giorgio Massari begins;

1755: Work begins on the raising of two rear floors with terraces belonging to the Procuratori;

1757: Andrea Camerata substitutes Massari in the elevation work and builds eight columns between pillars at the base of the tower, probably as much for aesthetic reasons as for stability;

1760: To mark the restoration work, doge Loredan issues a commemorative medal (osella);

After the fall of the Republic, the tower becomes the property fo the City Council.

1855: A commission is nominated to report on the conditions of the tower;

1857: Evidence of damage is found in the towers top vault;

1857: The city council's works office is enlisted to make the necessary repairs cheaply a fornitura for work too delicate to contract out.

1857: Work on the clock is entrusted to the firm Sebastiano Cadel and Luigi di Lucia of Casa dell'Industria, San Lorenzo. Engineer Gio. Antonio Romano attached to the municpality supervises restoration. The Ornato Commission is newly formed. First intervention - the reinforcing of the vault in the tower's top floor. The vault suppports the ceiling and base of the Mori; the reinforcement involves an underside arch and six notched iron tie-beams (to replace five oxidized tie-beams): the tower's ceiling cover is dismantled ( rotted lead-covered larch) and transformed into a utilizable terrace flagged in slabs of Veronese stone; the balustrade is re-built in Istrian stone as is the base, with stairs, holding the Mori; the old wooden stairs are re-built in cast iron (78 steps for the first staircase, 28 for the top one). The steps were cast by the foundery of Engineer Odoardo Collalto in Mestre.
The stairs on the ground floor were untouched, various repairs and restoration work made to the exterior and mosaics.
The central part of the Merceria wing is restored, rubbed over with metallic lava and plastered to imitate Grecian marble, window surrounds are re-built in Istrian stone;

1859: The works are checked and approved by the Ornato Commission;

1859: (The Ascension) Official inauguration of the restored Clock Tower.