The world's biggest maze opened in
Fontanellato in the northern Province of Parma on Thursday.
The labyrinth conceived by Italian publisher and art
collector Franco Maria Ricci covers eight hectares and is
modelled out of 200,000 bamboo plants measuring up to five
metres in height to a total of three kilometres of inside paths.
It is the result of a promise made by Ricci to Argentinean
writer Jorge Luis Borges in 1977 and demonstrates his declared
fascination with mazes as a reflection of the human condition.
The site also includes the headquarters of the publishing
house Franco Maria Ricci and a museum containing 500 paintings,
sculptures and art and design objects dating from the 16th to
the 20th century.
There is also a library containing 15,000 volumes on art
history and the entire collection of works printed by the
18th-century Parma typographer and publisher Giambattista
Bodoni, who designed the serif typeface of the same name.
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