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Pesariis, the clock village

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Pesariis, a hamlet of Prato Carnico, in the province of Udine, is a small town situated in the Pesarina Valley, the valley that links Carnia to Cadore, known as the village of clocks. Millions of people around the world cast their eyes daily on tower, railway and town hall clocks that are likely to come from this little village, tucked away in a remote corner of the Eastern Dolomites.

The clockmaking vocation of the Pesariis village was officially proclaimed in 1725, when the Solari factory started, in that year indeed the Fratelli Solari Clock Making Factory was founded and began exporting clocks across the world. Today the company still produces industrial clocks and displays. But previously, probably from the second half of the seventeenth century, in many houses a type of robust and technically advanced wall clock was already built. There are no historical records documenting the beginning of this production, but probably people from Carnia acquired their skill during their migration to Germany, as can be inferred from certain similarities with clocks built at the same time in the Black Forest.

Today, walking along the village's streets, you can see many original clocks, 14 of these machines including monumental clocks and sundials: from the carillon clock to that with a water turbine, the clock with tilting water vessels, the clock of planets, the chessboard clock, the clock with water tanks, the clock with giant flips, the planisphere and nocturnal clock, the giant perpetual calendar clock.The retired workers of the Fratelli Solari Factory built these original and priceless pieces of art decorating the streets of the village. The passion of these artisans, born and raised in the small and lively artistic center of Italian clock-making, is limitless. Many of them have even come to turn their garages and basements into actual pendulum clock workshop. In Pesariis you can also find the Exhibition of Clockmaking, which provides age-old evidence of the craft clock tradition in Pesariis. The collection, which can boast items of all kinds, is catalogued by technological stage.

Here you can find a beautiful map to follow the discovery of the clocks and sundials scattered along the narrow streets of the village:

http://www.pesariis.it/home_orologi/

For the trekking lovers The Val Pesarina, one of the seven valleys of Carnia, develops in a west to east direction for about 20 km and allows for many excursions in nature. The area of Casera Razzo can easily be reached from Pesariis, and from there you can connect with the Lumiei valley and Sauris, as well as with nearby Cadore through the Sella Ciampigotto (1,790 m), from where one can directly reach Vigo di Cadore (bearing in mind that in winter, when the connecting roads are closed for heavy snow, neither of these possibilities are viable). The Dolomiti Pesarine can be considered a part of the Dolomiti Friulane, and among the least frequented Dolomites; they generally allow for walks in a setting which is far less crowded than the Dolomites' heartland, while at the same time lacking nothing of the natural beauty which is traditionally associated with these majestic mountains.

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The author

Eleonora Ruzzenenti

Eleonora Ruzzenenti

I am Eleonora, from Italy. I share with you a frenetic passion for travelling and an insatiable curiosity for different cultures. On itinari, you will find my stories about Italy.

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