Augenroller

Set into the gable of the Altes Kaufhaus (the old market hall) on the Florinsmarkt, the Augenroller is a wooden grotesque face that rolls its eyes and sticks out its tongue every half hour, on the half hour. A bell strikes; the mechanism kicks in; passing tourists usually miss it.

The Altes Kaufhaus itself, a 1414 stepped-gable building, also houses the small Mittelrhein-Museum. The Augenroller is most visible from the corner of the square nearest the Florin church.

things to do sight
A story
The Augenroller is supposedly modelled on Johann Lutter von Cobern, a sixteenth-century robber knight executed in the square in 1536. Local tradition says the carved face still rolls its eyes at the spot where his head fell; the mechanism is in fact entirely modern.