Impressive sundial in colourful mosaic.

Svetlogorsk is a touristy town at the Baltic sea and one that we love to visit when in Russia. It´s been four years since our last visit and I was looking forward to see this beautiful town again. There are many things to do but one of my favourite things is to walk along the promenade, where you can smell and hear the sea. I completely forgot about the sundial that is located at the end of the promenade. This beautiful sundial is made from colourful mosaic and is the main attraction on the promenade and cannot be missed.

History and origin of the sundial in Svetlogorsk.

The sundial zodiac measures 10 meters in diameter and was designed by sculptor Nicholas Frolov. He was not working on the project alone and was assisted by a group of people and it was installed on the promenade in September 1974. The sundial displays Moscow time and is very accurate. Did you know that it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records? Yes, it received a mention due to the composition and accuracy.

If you look towards the South-East side of the clock, you will see a large mosaic-covered ball. Their is an inscription plate (In Russian) next to it. It reads as follows and is directly translated from Russian into English:

” Sundial and decorative at the gathering site , depicting the seasons , made of mosaic tesserae . On the watch dial deametrom located 10 meters symbolic images of the twelve constellations.

The angle of inclination of the metal rod ( gnomon ) is equal to the latitude of Svetlogorsk , a shadow of it shows Moscow time. In ancient times every month indicating the sign of its constellation in which the sun was coming in this month. For two thousand years the vernal and autumnal equinox moved from its constellations , but assigned to the Greeks refer to survive.

To determine the correct time to the reading of a sundial you need to add the correction value from the table .”Below the inscription is a table of correction values .

I will not spend too many hours here but it is very interesting if you understand how it works and what they are saying. There are no signs in English and it makes it a little difficult if you don’t understand Russian.