La Meridiana and time "captured"

There are stories behind the facts and that are enclosed inside other stories. There are facts that are then decorated, to take a romantic and literary dignity. And finally there are the records created from a hybrid between the story and brought the fantasy, between the event and the meta-reflection, like the one here talks.

The imposing Basilica di Catania, to the St. Nicholas Arena, includes a transept measuring m. 105 x 48 and on it a dome m. 62 makes from a hat. Located at Piazza Dante over an area of approximately 100,000 sq.m. The building is adjacent to one of the largest monasteries of Europe (that of the Benedictines). Originally built in Nicolosi in 1156, which function as Hospice of the PP. Benedictine Cassinesi. Little by little expanded, becoming the first Priory, then Abbey until (also due to earthquake) was abandoned in 1578. The origin of the name dates back to the place of the 'sand' volcanic while the 'transfer' from the territory of the monastery of Nicolosi to the city of Catania occurred by the Benedictine Fathers. The monastery on the territory of Nicolosi hosted celebrities such as Queen Eleanor, wife of Frederick II of Aragon. Inside the Basilica is the Chapel of the Fallen, which is accessed dall'antisacrestia. In the chapel are preserved the bodies of Catania died during the First World War. After the last war, the Church, having been used for various purposes, was desecrated and only in 1989 was again entrusted to the Benedictines.
But there is particularly attractive in the Basilica, a building half artistic and half scientific, half and half sacred profane, which arouses the curiosity of tourists, and curious fans: the astronomical meridian.
Designed by two abbots was completed in 1841 by the sculptor Charles Catania Calì, convened by the Baron of Wittelsberg and Dott. Peters, known scientists of the time.
The sundial extends transversely to the main aisle, the Chapel of St. Benedict to that of S. Nicola, for a total length of m. 40.92. The forum gnomons (relating to the calculation of the movement of sunlight) is high m. 23.92 and is located within the Chapel of St. Benedict. Longitudinal strips along the meridian are given in Latin geographical data, astronomical, physical. In the twelve boxes that are located on either side of the sundial are engraved in red volcanic lava of Militello, the figures for signs of the zodiac, marble framed by dark gray ash. At the ends of the sundial are transcribed the names of manufacturers and the sculptor, also shows samples of measures that were in use at that time, including the French meter.
The mystery surrounding life takes projects related to the attempts of science to create tools that can monitor the movements of the sun. A complicated work of calculations behind these projects, together with the presumption of wanting an instant fix for the motion of the sky and its stars, to manage and grasp. Then there's the clash with that part of heaven that the man called scientist says with eyes' sincere 'and not plagiarized. The heretic, the Lutheran, sometimes the demon, take el'astronomo his likeness is found judged within un'imperiosa structure in which the eyes of glacial myriad of statues seem to fix it with the threat, while he works: "I trascino in the mirror to examine the blue of my eyes. Are neither cold nor treacherous but innocent eyes right to interrogate the lights of the stars, the sidereal abyss, "says Dr precisely that. Peters, a man really existed and character novel, the author of a journal on which transcribes the reports of his days, noting impressions on those Catholic priests who seem to watch it as a esangue Beelzebub; him, a Danish accustomed to seeing reality for what it is . He says between doubts and concerns, grievances and attempts to understand, scattered among the pages of the novel semi-Vanni Ronsisvalle, astronomers. Pages where Peters has witnessed a macabre secret that is hidden under the cover of the tombstone on which he should just drop the eye of the sun, not inside the Basilica of St. Nicholas, but the church Matrix Jaci-the-real.
What is the general character of Knowledge? Linked to a truth that can be folded under the Vault of Heaven, or what looks like all'amara awareness that even the science will never one certainty?
The sundial, with his grasp of function or to follow the rapid flow of time, it just charmed man with his illusory function. A crumb of eternity seems to have grasped, there, between light and changing refractive through colored glass, and between light and dark floor, while the golden strip of eternity magically moves from one to another, from one moment to another, from one century to another and rejects the man in quell'opinabile sweet torment.

Sabina Corsaro