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A summer of events in Perinaldo
July 26
A summer of events in the village of Perinaldo: unmissable appointments at the G.D. Cassini Astronomical Observatory!
The location: Perinaldo
Perinaldo is a small stone town with a history dating back thousands of years.
It may be that the stars are favorable to this place or it may be that the sky has always been particularly clear here, especially before the invention and spread of electric light: either way, Perinaldo has been the birthplace of some of the world’s most important astronomers and cartographers.
Gian Domenico Cassini, the official astronomer of Louis XIV, was born right here in 1625. The famous Perinaldo Astronomical Observatory is named after him, where it is possible to observe the sky and visit the planetarium.
In addition to Gian Domenico Cassini, Giacomo Filippo Maraldi, Cassini’s nephew and assistant and discoverer of the polar caps of Mars and two comets, Giovan Domenico Maraldi, also an astronomer, and Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio, topographer and cartographer to the Savoy family, were born in the village.
The historic center is very characteristic, with sundials on the buildings, stone walls, and the parish Church of San Nicola from Bari, erected in 1489, which houses a 15th-century wooden crucifix and one of the most beautiful organs in the Ponentine hinterland from 1829.