Parma

Parma
Country	Italy
region	Emilia-Romagna
province	Parma (PR)
Local name	Pärma
Coordinates	44 ° 48 ' N , 10 ° 20' E Coordinates: 44 ° 48 '0 " N , 10 ° 20' 0" E
height	55 m slm
surface	260 km²
Residents	198,292 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	763 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	43100
prefix	0521
ISTAT number	034027
Popular name	Parmigiani
Patron saint	Hilary of Poitiers
Website	www.comune.parma.it

Parma is a northern Italian city with 198,292 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019, metropolitan area: 425,000 inhabitants) in the southwestern Po Valley .

Located in the Emilia-Romagna region , Parma is, alongside Milan , Turin , Genoa , Bologna and Venice, a leading economic center in northern Italy with a focus on the food industry.

Parma has a time-honored, after a medieval Italian tradition called Universitates Citramontanorum been listening University and the international airport Aeroporto di Parma Giuseppe Verdi . It is conveniently located on one of Italy's main motorways, the A1 , which runs from Milan via Rome to Calabria .

geography

Climate diagram of Parma

The Parma River, a tributary of the Po , divides the center into the so-called New and Old Parma ( quartiere Oltretorrente ).

history

Parma in the 15th century

The history of the city goes back to the Etruscans . The Roman consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus founded in 184 BC BC on the right bank of the Parma river the city of Colonia Iulia Augusta Parmensis with the status of a Roman colony . After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , it was ruled by various powers: the Ostrogoths , Lombards , Frankish Count Palatine , the Papal States , Milan , the Dukes Farnese , the Bourbons , Habsburgs , again Bourbons, Napoleon to Marie-Louise of Austria .

Piazza della Pace with the Farnese family's Palazzo della Pilotta

The early modern duchy (Ducato) Parma was founded in 1545/47 by Pope Paul III. (1534–1549) created after separation from Milan for the illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese (1503–1547), whose successor Ottavio Farnese (1524–1586) succeeded in stabilizing the rule of the Farnese in Parma and in 1556 for the second, since then to expand connected with Parma Duchy of Piacenza , which Pier Luigi had already ruled briefly before the assassination. The third Duke Alessandro Farnese (1545–1592) was a general of the Habsburg imperial family who was famous under the name "il Gran Capitano".

In the 17th century the importance of the ducal house decreased, which died out in 1731 in the male line. A Princess of Parma, Elisabetta Farnese , however, was as the wife of Philip V of Spain , the matriarch of the Spanish Bourbons -Könige († 1766). She used the power of her empire and the allied France to establish the rule of her dynasty in Italy - whose Spanish-Habsburg possessions there had been completely lost to the Spanish crown after the War of Spanish Succession in 1714. She also aimed at her homeland Parma and Piacenza, which she was able to secure for her eldest son Charles I (later Charles III of Spain) through international treaties .

Another Franco-Spanish success in the War of the Polish Succession in 1735 forced Austria to cede the hitherto Habsburg dual kingdom of Naples and Sicily to Charles, for which, however, Parma to the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI. (1711–1740) and fell to his daughter Maria Theresa (1740–1780). The Austrian War of Succession , which was waged for their inheritance, ended for Parma in 1748 with a further waiver by the Habsburgs in favor of the Spanish Bourbons: The second son of Queen Elizabeth, Philip (1748–1765), founded the ducal line of this dynasty, whose members were royal due to their being -Spanish descent but also carried the title of Infante of Spain with the salutation " Royal Highness ". The marriage between Philip's son Duke Ferdinand (1751–1802) and Maria Theresa's daughter Archduchess Maria Amalia (1746–1804), entered into in 1769, led to a Bourbon-Habsburg marriage alliance in Parma-Piacenza - as well as in France and in Naples-Sicily in 1770 between Louis XVI. and Maria Amalia's sister Marie Antoinette .

During the French Revolutionary Wars, the double duchy was occupied by France in the late 1790s. In 1801 Napoleon agreed with Spain and the House of Bourbon-Parma that the double duchy should fall to France after Duke Ferdinand's death, while his ruling house should be compensated in Tuscany , where a new kingdom of Etruria was created. Parma-Piacenza fell to France in 1802 (where Napoleon later appointed two of his favorites as nominal dukes), Etruria was also withdrawn from the Parmesan Bourbons in 1807.

Parma in 1832

But even after the end of Napoleon's rule in 1814, the heir to the Bourbon claims, Charles II of Bourbon-Parma (* 1799; † 1883), could not return because the double duchy was replaced by the great powers for the Austrian imperial daughter and previous ones at the Congress of Vienna French Empress Marie Louise (* 1791; † 1847) had been reserved for life. Only after their death should Parma and Piacenza fall back to the House of Bourbon-Parma, for the meantime the Bourbon Dowager Duchess Maria Luisa (1817–1824) and Charles II (1824–1847) were initially reluctant to join the small, specially newly created duchy Lucca resigned. There, however, before the agreed move to his home country, Charles II renounced the throne for fear of revolutionary developments in October 1847; Lucca fell to the Habsburg Grand Duchy of Tuscany according to the treaty .

After the death of Empress Marie Luise in December 1847, the briefly landless bourgeois Charles II took up his ancestral rule in Parma and Piacenza, where, however, in the following year 1848 - like all Italian governments - he started again with the revolution and the striving for nationality Unity was faced. Twice - in April 1848 and (after his return in August 1848) in March 1849 - the Duke fled the country to which he never returned afterwards, since he resigned himself in favor of his son Charles III. (1849-1854) abdicated.

The young Duke Charles III. returned to Parma in August 1849 under the protection of Austrian troops and made himself so hated by his reactionary arbitrary regime that he - hardly mourned by anyone - was stabbed to death on the street in Parma in March 1854 by a stranger. For the still minor heir to the throne, Duke Robert (1854-1859/60), his mother, the French-born Bourbon Princess Louise Marie von Bourbon (* 1819, † 1864), took over the reign. Her clever government gave her a high personal reputation, but was able to overthrow the dynasty after the military defeat of the protective power Austria against the France of Napoleon III. and did not prevent Sardinia in 1859. In June 1859 the Duchess-Regent fled with her children to Switzerland and later to Austria. In March 1860, the revolutionary double duchies of Parma and Piacenza joined the United Provinces of Central Italy, created by the Kingdom of Sardinia as a temporary solution , and in 1861 they became part of the new unitary state of Italy.

A daughter of the last Duke Robert of Bourbon-Parma (* 1848, † 1907) was Princess Zita (* 1892, † 1989), as the wife of the Hapsburg Charles I 1916-1918 Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary was. Zita's brother Prince Sixtus (Sizzo) of Bourbon-Parma was the namesake of the diplomatic Sixtus affair in the First World War . Both nephews, Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma (* 1930, † 2010) inherited the claims to the throne of the Carlist counter-kings of the Spanish Bourbons (see also Carlist Wars ), but after the effective re-establishment of the Spanish monarchy after 1975 renounced in favor of the reigning King Juan Carlos I. from the Bourbon line of Queen Isabella II.

see also: List of the rulers of Parma

Attractions

Churches and monasteries

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

The Romanesque cathedral Santa Maria Assunta with changes inside from the Renaissance and Gothic frescoes in the side chapels and a fresco by Correggio in the dome ( Assumption of the Virgin Mary ) in the dome
The octagonal baptistery of San Giovanni from the 13th century with a facade of pink Veronese marble
The Benedictine monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista , with the abbey church rebuilt after a fire in the 15th century with Mannerist facade, a dome fresco by Correggio and statues by Bernardo Falcone
Basilica di Santa Maria della Steccata (= on the fence) with the graves of Empress Maria Luise and Adam Albert von Neipperg
Camera della Badessa or Camera di San Paolo in the former monastery of San Paolo with frescoes by Correggio
Former monastery of San Martino di Bocci , incorrectly known as Certosa di Parma.

synagogue

The synagogue near Piazza Garibaldi was built in 1866.

Secular buildings

Farnese Theater

16th century Palazzo della Pilotta with the 17th century Teatro Farnese .

Teatro Regio di Parma , inaugurated by Maria Luise in 1829.

Duke Alessandro Farnese had the citadel built at the end of the 16th century as a show of power and as an employment measure for the population. In the pentagonal complex on the outskirts of the historic town there is now a public green area with sports equipment and children's playgrounds.

photos

Palazzo del Governatore in Piazza Garibaldi
Baptistery
Parco della Cittadella
Parco della Cittadella
Post office
Biblioteca Palatina
Teatro Regio di Parma

economy

traffic

Parma Central Station

The Parma Airport is located close to the town center and is served by several airlines in scheduled traffic.

Parma is located on the Milan-Bologna railway line and since 2009 has also been connected to the new high-speed line Milan-Bologna by a branch . The railway line to Brescia also branches off here .

The A1 Autostrada connects Parma with Milan in the north and Bologna in the south-west.

Food

Parmigiana di melanzane

Parma is known for the Parmigiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese , the Parma ham Prosciutto di Parma and also as the seat of the pasta producer Barilla and the Parmalat large dairy 11 km to the southwest .

The actually Neapolitan dish Parmigiana di Melanzane is named after the city because of the preparation with Parmigiano Reggiano (indirectly).

politics

Executive and community representation

Federico Pizzarotti ( MoVimento 5 place ) was in the runoff election on 20./21. In May 2012 the President of the Province of Parma, Vincenzo Bernazzoli ( PD ) was elected mayor with 60.2% of the vote. The five-star movement has an absolute majority in the municipal council with 20 out of 32 seats and has appointed the first mayor of a major Italian city. The previously ruling ( PdL ) could not move into the municipal council with 4.7% after a corruption scandal. In 2016, Pizzarotti resigned from MoVimento 5 Stelle and has been non-party since then .

Mayor of Parma:

1989–1992: Mara Colla, ( PSI )
1992–1998: Stefano Lavagetto, ( DS )
1998–2007: Elvio Ubaldi, ( UdC )
2007–2011: Pietro Vignali, ( PdL )
since 2012: Federico Pizzarotti, ( MoVimento 5 position , independent since 2016)

Town twinning

Argentina Rosario ( Argentina )
China People's Republic Shijiazhuang ( People's Republic of China )
United States Milwaukee , Wisconsin , ( USA )
Spain Guadalajara ( Spain )
France Bourg-en-Bresse ( France )
France Tours ( France )
Slovenia Ljubljana ( Slovenia )
Germany Worms ( Germany )
Hungary Szeged ( Hungary )

Sports

The Parma Calcio football club has made the city famous. He was, at that time still under the name AC Parma , 1993 European champions Cup Winners' Cup and 1995 and 1999 UEFA Cup winners .

Personalities

Famous personalities of the city are included in the list of personalities of the city of Parma .

Others

The German early romantic Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853), u. a. known as the author of the comedy Puss in Boots , is said to have coined the following bon mot after his stay in Italy in 1804/05: "Nobody says he has seen Italy unless he has visited you, Parma, and your cathedral."

Parma has been the seat of the European Food Safety Authority since July 2005 .