The Sundials at the Cordon School
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Description
Two sundials designed in 1993 by students at the Cordon School are now installed—one on the east wall, showing the morning hours, and the other on the west wall.
Two sundials were designed in 1993 by students at the Cordon School and are now mounted on the east and west walls, respectively. The sundial mounted on the downstream wall of the Cordon elementary school is a morning-declining sundial, painted on an equatorial panel with arcs for the solstices and the quarters of the year. Dated 1993–1994, the written motto is “Morning sun, reach out your hand to me.”
It indicates the hours from 5 to 12 as well as the half-hours. It features three zodiac arcs and the symbols of the zodiac. A golden star crowns the design, extending from the upper corner. At the bottom are the names of the creators: F. Denizot, A. Terre-Vecchia, and Y. Bottolier-Lemallaz. The latitude and longitude are inscribed there.
A second clock, created in 1993, is located in the elementary school’s courtyard and was commissioned by the same school principal, Monique Gerola. Painted on wood, it overlooks the playground. Its visibility diminishes significantly in the evening. Stars fill the night sky in the upper right corner.
Below, on the blue background, our planet is adorned with flowers and a rooster heralding the dawn. The hour circle radiates from the center of the sun. There is one arch for Candlemas and another for May 1st. Its polar-style design features a heart with an eyelet. It was created based on the advice of F. Denizot and A. Terre-Vecchia.
The first one is visible from the road. The second is in the schoolyard and is not accessible during school hours.
A sundial is a silent, stationary instrument that indicates solar time through the movement of the shadow cast by an object of variable shape—the gnomon or style—across a surface, the dial face, in conjunction with a set of graduations marked on that surface. The dial face is generally flat but can also be concave, convex, spherical, cylindrical, etc.
