Aiello, the town of sundials

Aiello has gained the fame of "town of the sundials", a very rich gnomonic heritage that includes over 100 sundials (about one for every twenty inhabitants), but the number is constantly growing. There is no other place in the world that has so many sundials in such a small space. The presence is such that you can organize real itineraries to discover them. This is why the country is ideally divided into seven zones. Zone 1, called "Banda Crauì", along Marconi, Alfieri and Casa Bianca streets, includes 12 sundials; zone 2, called "La Vila", near the Church, includes 11 sundials, among which the peculiar armillary sphere; zone 3, called "Borc dai Fraris", between Battisti and dai Fraris streets, includes 10 sundials; zone 4, called "Pascut", between Petrarca and Alighieri streets, includes 33 sundials, 20 of which are part of the Museum of Rural Life in Imperial Friuli; zone 5, called "Moravissa", contains 12, distributed between via Manzoni and via Cavour; zone 6, called "Banda Uànis", includes 15 along via Cavalleria, among which the gnomonic complex Meridiana Universale; finally, zone 7, called "Uànis", in the hamlet of Joannis, contains 15. But where does this peculiarity come from? In reality, there has never been a historical tradition and everything was born, a bit by chance, when at the beginning of the 1990s the professors Franco and Carlo Bressan, thanks to the involvement of some students, created the first solar dial on the wall of the school (even if in reality the record is due to the Brandis or Sardon mill in the 1800s). Subsequently Carlo built others: one at Molin Novacco and the other on the Perini winery. Until 1993, when Aurelio Pantanali, intrigued and at the same time attracted by sundials, decided to build one, on the family home, having to paint it. At this point, after having completed it, people started to stop him, proposing him to realize others on the walls of private houses. Among the requests received also that of Andrea Bellavite (the current mayor) who commissioned him one for the rectory. Since then, thanks to the Narvarca Cultural Club, the citizens, many artists and gnomonists from all over the region, a wide-ranging artistic, social and cultural project has been set up, which has transformed Aiello into the "town of sundials".