The park

At the westernmost edge of the Corinaldo area, on the border with the municipality of Castelleone di Suasa — just over a kilometre from the Suasa Archaeological Park — lies the Selva di Boccalupo Park, known as the “Ex-Geophysicist’s Park”. It takes its name from an ancient little church in the area, the church of S. Maria di Boccalupo. Covering about six hectares, it was established in 1952 as an observatory of the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome. It was later transferred to the Municipality of Corinaldo, which equipped it and made it accessible to the public. It is a very large and picturesque space of great natural interest, dominated by native vegetation and particularly well suited to outdoor events and activities.

The world’s largest planisphere

Here stands the world’s largest planisphere, an installation of great geographical and scientific interest. The planisphere is a 2D representation of planet Earth created on the park’s grassy grounds. A record-breaking work covering an area of 627 sq m (33 × 19 m). It was built mainly from eco-friendly materials (gravel, iron and wood) through a process based on 534 wooden stakes driven into the ground at positions identified using a GPS locator. The stakes acted as guide points for outlining the continents, which were formed using hand-bent iron bars. White gravel was used for the surfaces of the continents, while blue gravel — dyed by a local company with ecological, environmentally compatible paints — was used to represent the waves of the seas and oceans.

The idea of creating a work that reminds everyone of the duty to respect and protect our planet came from Rodolfo Coccioni, Honorary Professor at the University of Urbino and Director of the Planet Earth Observatory, and Giuseppe Falcinelli, Honorary President of APS PerTerra. The work took a long time to complete and was made possible thanks to the association’s volunteers and several local companies that shared in the project and provided most of the materials used through sponsorship.

This extraordinary installation is a special destination for visitors and tourists, a space for spreading themes and reflections ranging from human evolution to the environmental and ecological issues affecting our planet.