The Ducal Garden, open daily to the public, is on the other side of the river, and may be reached from the palace by a bridge called the Ponte Verde. It is a large piece of ground, laid out in a formal style; but when its chestnuts, limes, and acacias, are in leaf, it affords a pleasant promenade. Within the grounds is a palace called Palazzo di Giardino. The Botanic Gardens are at the other side of the town,
near the citadel. The broad road near it, called the Stradone, is planted with trees, and is a favourite place of resort for the town’s-people, both in carriages and on foot.
Parma: Cathedral.
By a narrow street leading east from the Ducal Palace is the [Cathedral], a good specimen of Italian Gothic, built in the 13th and 14th cents. The portals are adorned with lions, by B. da Bisoni, 1281. In the interior, along the top of clustered articulated columns, runs an elegant triforium, and over it extends a lofty elliptical roof, painted by G. Mazzola. The choir is above the level of the nave. Within the great door, left side, is a portrait of Correggio, and on the other, one of Parmegianino. The cupola was painted by Correggio (1526-30), with frescoes representing the Assumption of the Virgin, but they are in a ruined state. Those on the vault of the right transept were by a son of Correggio, while those on the left transept were by Orazio Sammachini. In the Capella dei Canonici, on the right side of the church, at the foot of the choir-steps, is an altar-piece by B. Gatti; and near it a poor bust of Petrarch, with an inscription recording that he was archdeacon here. Beneath the choir is a spacious crypt, supported by thirty-four marble columns. On the walls of the sacristy are frescoes of the 14th century, and intarsias by L. Biancho.
Parma: Baptistery. S. Giovanni.
The [Baptistery] is a lofty octagonal building (1196-1281), with four deeply-recessed doorways, enriched with bas-reliefs. The four tiers of open galleries with columns, and a fifth tier of engaged arches, the pinnacled canopies at the top, and the ring of fantastic carvings below, combine to render this one of the most remarkable buildings of its class in Italy. In the interior there are two tiers of galleries, some rude sculpture, and a profusion of fresco painting—old, but not of much value. At the middle is a great font, hewn out of one piece of marble, and having in the centre a place where the priest could stand, protected from the water, whilst he immersed the child. The font at which the Parmesans are now baptised is at one side, ornamented with carvings, and supported by a marble lion. [S. Giovanni Evangelista] (1510), a church standing near the cathedral, and much visited on account of the frescoes painted by Correggio (1520-25) in the cupola; they represent the Vision of St. John, and, though blackened and badly lighted, they are fortunately in a better condition than those in the cathedral. The figures are on a large scale, and include the Evangelists and the Fathers of the Church, who look with astonishment at the glory above. Correggio also painted in grey the decorations of the vault of the sanctuary; and over the door of the sacristy in the left transept a fresco of St. John.
In the 1st chapel to the right of the principal entrance is a good painting of the Modenese school, and the monument of Sanvitale-Montenuovo; in the 2d an Adoration of the Shepherds, by Giacomo Francia (the painter’s portrait is seen in the old man to the left); in the 6th chapel is a copy of Correggio’s “Night,” now at Dresden. On the arches of the 1st and 2d chapels on the left of the entrance are much-damaged frescoes by Parmegianino (four subjects); and in the 6th chapel is a picture, by Anselmi, of Christ with his Cross. The white marble holy-water fonts deserve notice. In the adjoining convent (now used as barracks) is a damaged fresco of two children by Correggio.
Parma: S. Paolo—Correggio.
Near the Piazza Grande is the church of the Madonna della Steccata, from designs by F. Zaccagni in 1521. The best frescoes are by Parmeggianino, Moses breaking the Tables of Stone, Adam and Eve, and the Virtues, on the archway of the choir. On the vault over the high altar a Coronation of the Virgin, by Anselmi. Gatti painted the cupola. The wooden pulpit combines elegance with simplicity. A good Madonna in corner chapel left of main entrance. Near the Piazza di Corte is the church of S. Lodovico, and adjoining it the suppressed [Convent of S. Paolo], now a school. In this small building are the best preserved works of [Correggio], painted for the abbess of the convent on the walls and ceiling of this her reception-room. The subject is Children, or Amoretti, represented as being seen through the openings of a bower or piece of trellis-work. Their varied attitudes are most charmingly portrayed. Diana herself, whose Triumph is thus depicted, is painted over the fireplace. Below the principal subjects are smaller figures in grey. The frescoes in the next room are by Araldi. The custodian is generally to be found in the picture-gallery.
The famous Parmesan cheese is made chiefly in dairies around Milan, Lodi, and Pavia, and is called Formaggio di grana, because commonly used in a granular form with soup. 17½ miles S.E. from Parma is [Reggio Emilia] (pop. 24,000). Hotels: Posta; Cavaletto. Cabs—80 c. the course; 1½ fr. the hour. Sights—Cathedral; house of Lodovico Ariosto, born here 1474. His Orlando Furioso went through sixteen editions in the 16th cent. 9 m. N.E. is Correggio, the birthplace of the great painter Antonio Allegri, called Correggio. To the Castle of Canossa and back, 14 frs.