Description
The Meridiana del Porto is the sundial on the south wall of the Harbor Master's building in Brindisi. It was made in 1917 by Enrico Alberto d'Albertis, a Genoese navigator and keen builder of sundials.
Beneath the dial runs a motto greeting the harbor: “Hail to those who arrive, hail to those who depart, iron whales, eagles of war, I give you the hour with old science and art.” The iron whales are the warships: Brindisi was a leading naval base in both world wars.
D'Albertis built more than a hundred sundials between 1875 and 1928, in Italy and as far away as Egypt, Libya and Albania. Of the five he made in Apulia, this is the only one left.
He was an extraordinary man. For the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, he retraced Columbus's route aboard his yacht, the Corsaro, using the same onboard instruments, and reached San Salvador in twenty-seven days.
Beneath the dial runs a motto greeting the harbor: “Hail to those who arrive, hail to those who depart, iron whales, eagles of war, I give you the hour with old science and art.” The iron whales are the warships: Brindisi was a leading naval base in both world wars.
D'Albertis built more than a hundred sundials between 1875 and 1928, in Italy and as far away as Egypt, Libya and Albania. Of the five he made in Apulia, this is the only one left.
He was an extraordinary man. For the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, he retraced Columbus's route aboard his yacht, the Corsaro, using the same onboard instruments, and reached San Salvador in twenty-seven days.