Il paese delle meridiane

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 owners' consent. Each dial tells something about the people who live there: a trade, a passion, a birth, a motto. Along the way you also come across 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).