Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2021
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In the park of the Abbey of Epau, in Yvré-l Evêque in France, you can admire a curious monument in the shape of an obelisk. Built by the Benedictine monk Bedos de Celles between 1631 and 1640, the sculpture consists of four sides, perfectly symmetrical, and oriented along the cardinal directions, with several curious protrusions and shapes. Each of these shapes has a purpose: they are sundials, a total of thirty in all.
Sundial of the Groirie in Yvré-l Evêque. Photo:
Distributed over all the four faces, these sundials operate at different times of the day as the sun travels. The south face is the one with the most dials. It has, among other things, a carved block in the form of an open book, the pages of which serve as a style for eight distinct dials. Above this book are aligned six cylindrical dials. The south face also has two other vertical dials.