Cuckoo Clocks · Passau
Cuckoo Clocks in Passau
Originals from the Black Forest, curated on Residenzplatz.
The essentials at a glance
At a glance
You won't have to carry a thing — we pack and ship worldwide.
In the shop, every major card is welcome — Visa, Mastercard, American Express.
IOn display
A small selection
A glance through the window — a few pieces in the vault just now. We keep three kinds: the hunting piece, carved in dark solid wood, the chalet with its moving figures — and the modern line, which quietly wins over those who never thought a cuckoo clock was for them. Each piece has its own voice, and no two strike quite alike.
Engraving on the larger models — the larger the clock, the more room for your words.
IIThe Craft
From the Black Forest into the World
The Black Forest cuckoo clock is no mere souvenir – it is a piece of living craft history. Through the long winters of the 18th century, the farmers of the Black Forest valleys began building clocks from the wood on their doorstep – first with wooden gear-works, later with fine brass. Out of this home craft, a whole region grew into the art of clockmaking.
Why the Clock Looks Like a House
The familiar form – the carved gable, the foliage, the calling bird – took shape around the middle of the 19th century. About 1850 the architect Friedrich Eisenlohr designed the so-called “Bahnhäusle”, a clock case modelled on the keepers' lodges along the young Baden railway. From that drawing came the shape that still stands for the Black Forest cuckoo clock the world over.
On a Pedlar's Back over the Alps
It went out into the world on foot: clock-pedlars strapped the finished pieces to their backs and set out over the Alps, as far as Russia and England. Inside, a purely mechanical movement still does the work – weights on chains, the pendulum, two small pipes with bellows for the call on the hour. Every case is carved by hand, no two quite the same.
Who Builds the Clocks Today
What hangs in Passau comes from the manufactories that still tend the old craft – Hönes, Hekas and Rombach & Haas with its Romba label. Classic forms, built anew for today: the same patience, the same steady touch as a century and a half ago.
Authenticity, certified: the seal “Original Black Forest Cuckoo Clock” of the Verein die Schwarzwalduhr (VdS) vouches for a mechanical movement and Black Forest origin – not every cuckoo clock may carry it.
That tradition lives on in the vault by the Residenz – on lime-washed walls that have shown a few centuries of patience of their own.
Inside the works
Anatomy of a Cuckoo Clock
How does a cuckoo clock work? Inside a Black Forest cuckoo clock, a purely mechanical movement does all the work: cast-iron pine-cone weights on chains drive the gear train, the pendulum keeps the beat, and on the hour two small bellows press air through wooden pipes – the familiar call. An eight-day movement needs winding just once a week.
In our vault by the Residenz we will gladly show you each of these parts on an open movement – at your leisure, piece by piece.
The owner
Your host
Viktor Riedel keeps the vault at Residenzplatz 5. Every clock on these walls is one he chose himself — Black Forest pieces, curated rather than stocked.
Step inside and you are guided, never pressed. And should one of the clocks win you over, Viktor packs it with care and ships it home, anywhere in the world — the animal on its platform is yours to choose before it goes.
Come and visitIIIHouse & History
Residenzplatz 5
A baroque corner house in the heart of Passau’s old town.
Four storeys rise at the corner of the Residenzplatz — a listed landmark, rebuilt after the great town fires of 1662 and 1680, its façade dating to the eighteenth century, a house of dwelling and trade for as long as anyone remembers. Seven window bays wide, the façade turns to the square, and two front doors still sit close beside one another — likely the trace of two plots that merged into a single house in the rebuilding. After the war it stood close to collapse; in 1954 it was saved with public funds — the heritage office counting it among the baroque buildings most important to Passau’s townscape. In recent decades the house has been kept with great care and an eye for detail.
Behind its tall arched shopfront windows lies the old limestone vault where the clocks have found their home today — cool, quiet, touched only sparingly by the light of the lanes. A room that does not rush you; whoever steps inside slows of their own accord.
Listed monument D-2-62-000-483; part of the protected ensemble of Passau’s old town.
A house that has outlasted time — and now gives it a place to rest.
Arches and rosette
Drawn from the House
The InnResidenz mark is taken from the house. The two arches in the wordmark are the arcades of the ground-floor windows, just as they face the square.
The rosette above comes from the wrought-iron shutters that close the windows at dusk — on the house since the 1880s, and listed as preserved in the monument inventory. Its wheel of petals is now worked into the mark as well.
IVLocation · Visit
On Residenzplatz
The shop stands where Passau is at its liveliest – on Residenzplatz, beside the fountain and the busy cafés, a few steps from the water. Yet step inside and it falls quiet: a vaulted room where only the clocks are ticking.
Address
InnResidenzResidenzplatz 5
94032 Passau
Opening hours
- Daily
- 9 am – 5 pm
Closed January to mid-March – shipping continues through the winter.
The square
One of the finest Baroque squares north of the Alps, framed by the Bishop’s Residence and the Gothic cathedral choir. At its centre stands the Wittelsbach Fountain of 1903 by the sculptor Jakob Bradl: beside the Virgin Mary, three angels for the rivers Danube, Inn and Ilz.
Getting here · Shipping
Five to ten minutes on foot from the Danube river-cruise piers on the Donaulände, depending on your berth – a quiet stroll through the old town, never a detour. And should you find a clock, you won’t have to carry it: we pack and ship worldwide. You enjoy the voyage; your clock travels home.
Directions on Google Maps
Contact
Pay us a visit
The nicest way is simply to come by. For everything else a short note will do — whether it concerns one clock in particular, or the journey it should take to your door.
- clock [at] innresidenz [dot] comWe read every message ourselves and reply with care.
- Address
- Residenzplatz 5
94032 Passau, Germanyin the old town, a few steps from the cathedralView on the map - Hours
- Daily 9 am – 5 pmClosed January to mid-March