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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house located in Château-Ville-Ville-Ville in the Hautes-Alpes, is home to a sundial made by Giovanni Francesco Zarbula, a 19th century Piedmontese dial painter. This monument is part of a series of about 100 dials executed between 1833 and 1881 in the French and Italian Alps, mainly in rural areas such as Queyras, the Ubaye Valley and Briançonnais. These works, often installed on modest buildings (houses, farms), are distinguished by their technical precision and fresco decoration, including geometrical motifs and astronomical symbols.

Zarbula, whose life is not well known, used a design method adapted to a latitude of 45°, which geographically limited his achievements between 44°23 His dials, signed from his initials, were precise within five minutes, with a style oriented to the nearest degree. About half of his works had a motto, and about 50 remain today. In the Hautes-Alpes, seven of its dials, including that of Château-Ville-Ville, have been protected as historical monuments since 1995.

The dial of this house, located on the facade is a sheepfold, illustrates the artistic and scientific heritage of Zarbula in an area marked by geographical isolation and an agro-pastoral tradition. Its inscription as a historic monument underlines its heritage importance, linked to both astronomy, alpine folk art and cross-border cultural exchanges between France and Italy in the 19th century.

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