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Parma history
The earliest traces of mankind in the area around Parma have been
found on the quaternary fluvial terraces of the hills near
Traversetolo, dating back to the Mousterian period of the Lower
Paleolithic (100,000 - 35,000 yers ago). Upper Paleolithic sites
(35,000 - 10,000 yars ago) have been found in the Taro and Ceno
valleys. The main Neolithic settlements (4,500 BC) were in the
lower-lying areas at Mamiano, Collecchio and Santa Margherita di
Fidenza. Eneolithic burial chambers (2,700 - 1,800 BC9) have also
found at Collecchio.
The Bronze Age saw the widespread use of terramara, from terra mara
or terra marna: farming settlements on mounds of black, oily earth
(or marl, a good fertilizer) forming quadrangular units enclosed by
dikes and ditches linked to a waterway.
The best examples of more
than fifty that have been found are at Castione Marchesi, Borgo
Valorio di Parma and Castellazzo di Fontanellato.
Celtic occupation in the second half of the 4th century did not
extend into the Apennine area, which was firmly controlled by
Ligurian tribes until their supremacy was weakened by the crushing
forces of the Roman army in the early 2nd century BC. The numerous
prehistoric walled settlements, or castellieri, that have been found
at Norciveglia on the slopes of Mt. Pelpi, d'Umbria and Rocchetta
Metti (Bardi), Costa delle Case (Ponteceno) and Rocca Casali (Bore),
provide a record of local defense systems.
The roman conquest and land reorganization
With the defeat of the Gauls in 191 BC and the construction of the
via Emilia (187 BC) the Romans began to take over the area. The
reorganized, centuriated plain was used for agriculture, and sheep
farming became a major activity that continued right up to the 18th
century.
Livy (Titus Livius) tells of the simultaneous foundation in 183 BC
of Parma and Modena, where 2,000 families were settled.
Archaeological remains have come to light in Parma and Fidenza,
where the ancient town layouts survive; other vestiges of Roman life
in the area include the country villa at Felino, the kiln at Sala
Baganza, what are believed to be Roman bridges at Corniglio and
Santa Maria del Taro, and the remains of a Roman bridge at Fornovo
di Taro.
The Via Emilia, restored by Augustus, was the main artery of
communications (remains of a Roman bridge where it passe
d over the
Parma river and a Roman bridge over the Stirone at Fidenza survive),
from which a series of major roads branched off.
Parma occupied a strategic position at the intersection between the
Roman road (running east - west) and the pre - Roman transapennine
route connecting Luni and the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Po and the
Adriatic.
Two roads led to Tuscany and the Tyrrhenian Sea: Via Claudia - which
later became the main Mt. Bardone road - and the Parma - Lucca
highway, which ran up the Enza valley to the Pradarena (or
Ospedalaccio) pass, down to the Lunigiana and Garfagnana regions,
and from there to Lucca. Another important link was with Brixellum
(present - day Brescello), a major river port on the Po where ships
connecting Ravenna with Pavia and the Po valley changed crews.
Parma, which was rebuilt by Augustus after its destruction in 44 BC,
reached its height in the Imperial period and the title Julia was
conferred on the city in the 1st century AD, in recognition of its
loyalty to Rome.
It became an episcopal seat in the 4th century when its land was
drawn into the tangled conflict that led to the breakdown of Roman
state organization, Barbarian invasions and prolonged war between
the Goths and the Byzantines.
The middle ages and the age of the communes
The city, which was renamed Crisopoli in the Byzantine period (553 -
568), was later conquered by the Longobards (569) and became a duchy
ruled in 603 by a chamberlain who in turn was nominated by the king.
A new communications system was laid over the Roman pattern,
differing from it in some parts and coinciding with it in others. It
was in this period that the Mt. Bardone road was created, the Parma
stretch of the Via Francigena.
Castles and hospices offering hospitality and assistance to pilgrims
and wayfarers, such as the one founded in 712 by the Longobard king,
Liutprand, at Berceto, sprang up throughout the area. In the 15th
century there were 49 hospitals in Parma, 12 along the Apennine
ways, 18 on the Via Francigena, 12 in the valley and 6 along the Via
Emilia. With the arrival of the Franks (774) Parma became an
administrative capital.
The area was fraught with danger after a series of devastating,
cataclysmic events in the High Middle Ages; rivers flooded the plain
and uncultivated land and woods spread. It was not until the 9th
century, with the appearance of a string of mostly Benedectine
monasteries (Valserena, Certosino, Fontevivo, Chiaravalle, and
Colomba to the south, and Sanguigna to the north) that any real
efforts were made to reclaim the land so that it could be settled
and farmed once again.
 The bishops gradually assumed temporal control and Parma took on a
leading role in the investiture controversy. It took the side of the
Holy Roman Empire in the dispute between the lay and ecclesiastical
powers and produced two antipopes: Honorius II (ruled 1061 - 72),
Bishop Cadalus, lord of the city and founder of its Cathedral, and
Clement III (1080 - 1100), Bishop Guiberto.
The Via Francigena became an international thoroughfare, used by
pilgrims and traders alike. Fortifications were an increasingly
common sight and a network of parish churches grew up, the gathering
places in a complex system of towns and scattered clusters of
houses. At its hub lay Parma, ensuring stability and control.
The establishment in 1106 of the Comune, or indipendent municipal
authority, marked the rebirth of the city after its break - up in
the early Middle Ages. The Peace Treaty of Constance (1183) was
followed by a rekindling of disputes with the neighboring
municipalities of Reggio, Piacenza and Cremona over control of the
Po river, which was linked to Parma by the naviglio canal system.
The seignoral age
The decline of the Comune and the internal strife caused by the
struggle for supremacy between the pro-papal families (Sanvitale,
Rossi and Lupi) and the Ghibellines, resulted in the defeat of
Emperor Frederick II in 1248.
The early 14th century saw a period of grave political crisis
induced by factional fighting (especially between the Rossi and the
Da Correggio families) and of widespread social and economic misery,
which culminated in the Great Plague of 1347.
Power changed hands several times before Parma was eventually seized
by the Visconti family in 1341, after which control passed to Philip
Maria (1420) and - following a brief interlude of indipendence under
the Terzi princedom (1404-09) - to the Sforza (1440-1500), which
ruled the area through various noble families (Pallavicino, Rossi,
Sanvitale and Da Correggio).
These powerful dynasties reintroduced a feudal form of particolarism,
strengthening their seats of local power by acquiring land and
building castles, creating rural dominions to which the central
authorities were forced to grant privileges and immunity.
Sharecropping, a practice that had been widespread since the 14th
century, was seriously threatened as these dominions took root. Vast
tracts of land were to all intents and purposes indipendent states.
From 1257 to 1682 the Landi family governed the Upper Taro and Ceno
valleys with the magnificent strongholds of Bardi, Compiano and
Borgo Val di Taro (from 1551); the Pallavicino family, which had
gained Borgo San Donnino (Fidenza) in 981, occupied the whole
western band of the present-day province from the hills to the Po,
and set up capital in Busseto.
Curiously, the feudal control exercised by these families in the
area around Parma for centuries survives in some cases to the
present day. Apart from the Landi family in the Apennine and
foothill regions, the Fieschi family controlled Albareto (12th
century-1547), Borgo Val di Taro (13th century-1547) and Calestano
(until 1650), the Rossi family Corniglio (13th-17th century), the
Pallavicino family ruled over Solignano (1249-1805) and Scipione
(16th century-1776), and the Sanvitale family over Sala Baganza and
Fontanellato (14th - 18thcentury). Down in the plain the Torelli
family held Montechiarugolo (1406-1612),the Meli Lupi Soragna (dal
XV secolo fino ad oggi), the Sanseverino Colorno (1458-1612), the
Rossi family also controlled San Secondo(14th - 19th century).
The Church too held vast areas of land for centuries, including the
valleys and courts of Monchio (from 941 to 1805) and Mezzani (from
the early Middle Ages to 1763). Between the 15th and 16th century
Parma was the theatre of various European conflicts: Fornovo, for
example, was the scene of the famous battle between Charles VIII of
France and the Italian League forces commanded by Francesco Gonzaga
(5-6 July 1495).
The city was ruled by the French from 1500 to 1521 (with a brief
interlude of church control from 1512 to 1515), followed by another
period of church rule until 1545.
 The Farnese duchy
In 1545 Pope Paul III made the new political region of Parma and
Piacenza over to his favorite son Pier Luigi Farnese in an attempt
to create a buffer region between the Church State and Spanish power
in Lombardy. It was the beginning of a dominion which, thanks also
to the family's enormous wealth, lasted for two centuries.
Pier
Luigi moved the capital to Piacenza, but was assassinated in 1547
and the two cities were occupied in the emperor's name. Duke Ottavio
successfully won back first Parma in 1550, and then Piacenza in
1556. Ottavio II (1547-86) did much to consolidate the state and
limit the power of the nobles, and also carried out radical
structural reforms to make the city worthy of its status as a
capital.
Duke Alessandro I put the governing powers into the hands of
Ranuccio I (1592-1622), under whom the structure of the state was
established. In 1594 the constitutions were drawn up by the powers
of the Council of Justice; the university expanded and the College
of Nobles was founded. The war against the petty feudatories
continued, culminating in 1612 in the execution in Parma's main
square of Barbara Sanseverino and six other nobles accused of
conspiring against the Duke.
After taking control of the domains of
the Pallavicino family in 1588 and those of the Landi family in
1682, the House of Farnese had taken over the entire Parma region by
the end of the 17th century. One of the projects begun under their
rule was the radical transformation by Ferdinando Bibiena of the
Sanseverino family's castle in Colorno, which became a sumptuous
residence.
The Bourbons and Marie-Louise of Austria
With the death of Antonio in 1731 the Farnese family died out and
Parma fell into decline. The rightful heir to the duchy was the
spanish infante Carlo, son of Elizabeth Farnese and Philip V. After
setting up court in Naples in 1734, Carlo transferred most of his
mother's wealth to the Royal Palace there, completely stripping
Parma of the fabulous art collections in the ducal palaces of Parma,
Colorno and Sala Baganza.
When peace was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, Charles I's
brother Philip, who went on marry Louis XV's daughter Louise
ELizabeth, became duke of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, adding much
of the Reggio plain to the duchy's possessions. Thus Spanish
influence gave way to French control.
The reformist policy of the highly enlighted Bourbon dynasty gave
the duchy a new lease of life. After 1759 the determined efforts of
prime minister Guillaume du Tillot turned it into a modern state
based on civil organization and an industrial economy. Tillot also
waged a fierce battle against the privileges of the Church,
eventually breaking away from italtogether in accordance with the
wishes of Duchess Amalia, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and
wife of Duke Ferdinand.
Parma subsequently enjoyed its period of greatest splendor, with new
elegant neoclassical architecture, urban structures and important
institutions, such as the Biblioteca Palatina (a library), the Royal
Printing, works run by Giambattista Bodoni, a rudimentary Museo
Archeologico (displaying finds from excavations at Velleia), the
Quadreria, (picture gallery) and the Botanical Gardens. Tillot's
policies continued up to the time of Napoleon (1802-14), when the
new Taro departement was created.
 The Congress of Vienna in 1815 awarded the duchy to Marie-Louise of
Austria, the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (1815-47).
During her
absolutist rule from 1816 to 1847, with the aid of ministers brought
in from other countries, the city grew further, welfare structures
and public works were developed and improved on, architecture
programs were implemented and communications improved with the
creation of the main Parma-La Spezia road.
The ducal residences were
also modernized: extensions were made to the Hunting lodge in Sala
Baganza, the Ducal Gardens, in Colorno the Ducal Garden in Parma
opened to the public.
The popularity of Parma's "beloved sovereign" was such that the
duchy felt little if anything of the moves toward unification in the
early years of the italian Risorgimento. In 1847 Marie-Louise died,
and the duchy was returned to the Bourbons, whose last ruler Charles
III was stabbed yo death in the city in 1854, leaving a widow Luisa
Maria Berry.
On 15 September 1859 the Bourbon dynasty was declared to be at an
end and Parma became one of the provinces of the Emilia region,
governed by Carlo Farini. In 1860 it was decided byplebiscite that
Parma would be annexed to Piedmont and subsequently to the Kingdom
of Italy.
 Toscanini natal room
From unification to liberation
When a unified Italian state was established, Parma had to come to
terms with its new, much humbler status as a mere provincial
capital, and was plunged into social and economic depression.
Reorganization of local infrastructures involved the construction of
the Piacenza-Bologna railway line in 1859 and of new roads to
Fornovo and Suzzara in 1883. Intense trade union activity in the
second half of the 19th century led to the creation in 1893 of the
Camera del Lavoro, or Trades Union Organization.
The protest and violent strikes in the years that followed
culminated in the general farm workers' strike from 1 May to 25 June
1908. Opposition to Fascism came to a dramatic head in early August
1922, when Italo Balbo tried to enter Parma's working-class
Oltretorrente district.
Residents organized themselves into a movement known as the Arditi
del Popolo and fought off the Fascist action squad. This event,
which came to be known as le barricate, was the first episode of
Resistance in Italy.
World War II air raids brought untold damage, destruction and death
to the area, and there were endless clashes with Partisans who had
established free zones in the upper Taro and Ceno valleys. Peace
finally returned with the Liberation of 25 April 1945.
Courtesy of Parma Tourist Office
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