Friday, December 10, 2010

Strange Clock

Wind rose, Villa Maria, LivornoMy friend Stefano is following some restoration works in “Villa Maria”, so we were able to climb on top of its tower. From up there we had a great view over the park and over some private gardens nearby, once part of the villa itself.
In one of these gardens we saw this strange device, dated 1873. It is a wind rose with marked the initials of all the major winds:

P “Ponente”
M “Maestrale” (Mistral)
T “Tramontana” (Tramontane)
G “Grecale” (Gregale)
L “Levante”
S “Scirocco” (Siroco)
M “Mezzogiorno” (Ostro)
L “Libeccio”

Wind rose, Villa Maria, LivornoThe dial is driven by a weather vane, which we have already seen in detail during one of my walks.

19 comments:

Traveling Hawk said...

This clock is very interesting, VP! I have never seen something like this. Thanks for sharing with us this piece of information.

Luis Gomez said...

This is a really nice post VP. Like Jacob I had never seen one like this.

Jim said...

That is fascinating.

Luis Gomez said...

Meant to say like Traveling Hawk.

Stefan Jansson said...

A very unique clock, I have never seen anything like it before. I'm very glad that Stefano lets you tag along to these places!

Anonymous said...

May a mistery. Thank you for this escape into time during the middle of the night. Please have a good Friday.

daily athens

Michelle said...

This clock is new to me as well, but quite intriguing I must say.

Randy said...

This is very interesting post indeed.

Jack said...

Quite unusual, VP. I haven't seen anything like it.

cieldequimper said...

Oh fantastic. Thanks to your friend.

Dina said...

How cool is that!

joo said...

It's fantastic and a bit mysterious! Superb post!

Kaori said...

what a interesting find! I've definitely never seen this before ;-D

brattcat said...

A wind clock...how very wonderful. Thank you!

Cezar and Léia said...

I'm delighted here, I love old clocks!
Léia

Unknown said...

Really interesting. Never seen this before.

EG CameraGirl said...

What a treat to have friend doing work that allows you to take your camera.

I've never seen a wind rose such as this before. I wonder if it's still functional after all these years.

Babzy.B said...

never seen a clock like this one before !

Francisca said...

What a fascinating wind rose! Does it work still?