Year 2004

Sundial of the month November

Jorwerd double sundial

On the south wall of the church in Jorwerd, Friesland, above the entrance, is a double sundial.
See the red circle in the photograph of the church.

One sundial faces south-west, the other south-east.
Such a combination of two vertical sundials, by itself, could show time during the entire day. Accordingly, one shows the hours from 4 to 15, the other from 9 to 20, in Roman numerals.

In Jorwerd however, the combination sits on a (long) south wall, which is never sunlit outside the hours of 6 to 18, and lit even less in summer. The same therefore holds for this double sundial.
(What? This wall gets less sunlight in summer than in autumn and spring?
Yes! In The Netherlands, the sun goes behind a south wall at about half past four solar time.
See also the Article of the month archive for 2003, article 03-02.)
The conjecture is that in former days the sundial was in a different place, or even on a different building.

The sundial is dated 1621 and carries the motto VIRTVTE NON VI (‘By virtue, not by force’).