Parco Ruffini, Urban park in western Turin, Italy.
Parco Ruffini covers about 130,000 square metres in Turin's Pozzo Strada district, near Corso Trapani. Its mown lawns hold a shallow oval pool with a thin concrete rim, where three narrow jets rise and fan into spray; low metal fixtures sit at the base of the outer jets. Behind the pool are trees and children's play equipment, alongside tennis courts, five-a-side pitches, a basketball court, a volleyball court, a skating rink and two fenced dog areas.
Parco Ruffini opened on 31 December 1925 as Parco Gerolamo Napoleone Bonaparte, created to give the expanding Pozzo Strada district a green space as industry grew around Borgo San Paolo. The land came from farms and plots bought from the Galiziano family of Como. After World War II it was named after Francesco Ruffini, a jurist and former minister who refused the fascist oath. An air-raid shelter was built beneath the stadium during the war.
The park's internal avenues are named after geographers and explorers such as Luigi Hugues, Carlo Piaggia and Luigi Maria d'Albertis. It is also known locally as Valentino Nuovo, a reference to Turin's central Valentino park. Two fenced dog areas are provided, and dogs elsewhere must be kept on a leash.
The park lies in Pozzo Strada, along Corso Trapani on Turin's western edge. Dogs are allowed only on a leash, and two fenced dog areas are provided. The fountain at the centre and the irrigation systems have not worked since the early 2000s. Free-access pitches for tennis, basketball, volleyball, five-a-side football and skating sit alongside two playgrounds.
The PalaRuffini arena, built for Italia '61, was designed by Annibale Vitellozzi, who also worked on Rome's PalaLottomatica with Pier Luigi Nervi. In the 1980s it hosted Turin's top basketball and volleyball teams and was the city's main indoor rock concert venue.
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