"I only count sunny hours": Sundials still adorn facades in Zrenjanin, they have been used since ancient Egypt

Photo: Zrenjaninski.com

Sundials were characteristic of many places in the province of Vojvodina, but, unfortunately, only a small number have been preserved. Several can be found in Zrenjanin.

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Two are drawn on the facades of school buildings. One, already faded, is on the facade of the building of the Jovan Trajkovic School of Economics and Business, writes the portal Zrenjaninski.

According to presented by Dr. Petar V. Vuca in the publication titled, "Sundials in Vojvodina," it was made in 1995. Its author is professor Krste Naumovski, and the mural was done by Milutin Micic.

There is also a sundial on the building of the Elementary School Sonja Marinkovic, in Slobodana Bursaca Street. It was created in 2006, and its author is Milutin Tadic, a professor at the Faculty of Geography in Belgrade. It has an inscription reading, "I only count sunny hours." Today it is partially damaged.

Sundials are also located on two private homes, in Djordja Stratimirovica and Dr. Zorana Kamenkovica streets.

Petar V. Vuca wrote in the said publication that measuring time in this way makes use of the position of the Sun. The most common form, such as the "regular" old-fashioned garden sundial, casts a shadow on a flat surface of a building on which hours are marked. The position of the Sun changes, so the time shown by the shadow also changes.

"Sundials can be placed on any surface where a fixed object casts a shadow. They show the daily solar time. They have been known since ancient Egypt, and they were also developed by other cultures - the Chinese, the ancient Greeks, and Romans," wrote Dr. Petar V. Vuca.

(Telergaf.rs)