Description
These pieces are the result of the sculptural art of the people. Measuring time was their main function. Their decorative and figurative changes were painstakingly crafted to appear on the main façades of houses.
It is likely that only families with some economic power were entitled to a clock, a sign of modest ostentation.
The clocks we have in the municipality have anthropomorphic and geometric shapes and date from the 18th and 19th centuries, according to the date on some specimens.
On the route through the interior of the county, on the route of the diving fountains, we find sundials, such as those of Cadaval, Fiolhoso, Cortinhas or Vilares, invented to respond to man's need to orient himself and manage the time of daily life. They are part of the sculptural art of time.
The clocks include a kind of hour dial, bas-relief plant motifs and peculiar figures such as masks and rose windows, which still retain traces of their polychromy. Columns, capitals, volutes, inscriptions, among other devices, help to form the whole - sundial.
The hand was made of metal (iron) and was set in the center of the dial, from where a series of straight lines (engraved incisions) diverged towards the edge (border) of the dial. The shadow caused by the hand was rotating and indicating the time as a result of the movement of the earth.
Everyone's clock marking the compass of each community's life.