Aiello del Friuli is the village of sundials. On the façades of houses, in the squares and in the courtyards of the village and of the hamlet of Joannis, there are about one hundred and fifty sundials: painted, carved, or made of iron, ceramic, mosaic, wood and even glass. It all began in the 1990s with a rod and a piece of chalk in the science lab of the middle school, and from there the sundials spread from house to house, with the consent of the owners. Each dial tells something about the people who live there: a trade, a passion, a birth, a motto. Along the way you also encounter centuries of history, from the Republic of Venice to the Habsburg Empire, among villas, churches, the castle and the mills. Since 2001, around the last weekend of May, the village celebrates them with the Sundial Festival (Festa delle Meridiane).
Available itineraries
Aiello, the Town of Sundials - Complete Itinerary
This is the recommended itinerary for those who wish to discover Aiello in its entirety, from one end to the other. It starts from via Marconi and the Borgo delle Meridiane, crosses piazza Roma and the Borgo dei Frati, and continues to the Cortile delle Meridiane and the castle. Then come the schools, where it all began, the Universal Sundial in via Genova Cavalleria and, finally, Joannis, with its houses of flowers and its mills. A complete journey through the town that made the sun its clock.
3rd Itinerary: Starting from the Schools' Small Square
This is where it all began. In the middle school's science lab, the students marked the tip of the shadow with chalk, day after day, until those drawings gave rise to the village's first sundial. From this point you can discover the sundials of via Oberdan, via Manzoni and via Percoto, dedicated to work in the fields, a family mill and a birth. Then the Universal Sundial of via Genova Cavalleria, on the road towards Joannis.
2nd Route: Starting from the Church of Sant'Ulderico
The patron saint of Aiello welcomes you on horseback, with a sword of fire in his hand and a sundial at his feet, painted on the wall of Villa Perinello next to the church. From here a route begins through the historic heart of the village: the little Posta square, the Borgo delle meridiane, the ancient parish church of San Nicolò and the Parco della Rimembranza. You then continue between via Rossini and the Borgo dei Frati, where every façade has something to tell.
1st Short Itinerary – Starting from the Sundial Courtyard
Around twenty sundials in a single courtyard, and each one shows a different hour. In the Sundial Courtyard, inside the Museo della Civiltà Contadina del Friuli Imperiale, you can read at the same moment the hour of the ancient Romans, that of the monasteries, and Babylonian, Italic and transalpine time. It starts with your own shadow and leads you to understand how humankind learned to measure time. Then you head out into the village, between via Petrarca, the town hall and the church of Sant'Ulderico.
4th Short Route: the Joannis Area
Joannis, in Friulian Uanis, was a municipality in its own right until the 1920s, and it has a character all its own. You will discover this as soon as you reach via Mameli, where one sundial wraps itself around a violin and a piano and another tells of the birth of Time from the myth of Gaia and Uranus. The route continues between Palazzo Frangipane, via Mazzini and the houses of flowers, as far as the mills, where the water turned the wheels.
