Torre del Belvedere

In Mondovì Piazza, at the end of the slope flanking the cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, we reach the highest point of 'Monte Regale' and find one of the city's most famous sites: the Belvedere Gardens with the Parco del Tempo. This pleasant and green site allows one to admire a very wide panorama that sweeps 360 degrees, from the plains to the highest Alpine peaks, to the soft hills of the Langhe. Legend has it that looking at this view, Napoleon Bonaparte called Mondovì 'the most beautiful town in the world'.

The theme park illustrates ancient systems for measuring time and in particular, an anallem sundial, a horizontal true local time clock combined with an equatorial and an Italic and Babylonian time clock can be seen.

At the centre of the park stands the symbol of the city, the Civic Tower of the Belvedere, or dei Bressani, named after the family that made it the symbol of its prestige. Built in the 14th century and crowned by the characteristic 'merlons', it was originally used as the bell tower of the adjacent church of Sant'Andrea, later demolished. At 30 metres high, it provides an even more impressive view, towering above the red roofs of the village houses. This very spot was used by the scientist Giovanni Battista Beccaria as a trigonometric point for the determination of the Piedmont meridian arc in 1762.

At the top of the tower are the bells and the characteristic single-handed clocks, visible from a great distance. Accompanying the ascent is an installation by Liliana Moro, a well-known contemporary artist, entitled "What do I hear when I listen to the passing of time?". The sound art work was conceived especially for the tower, punctuating the steps leading up to the top.