Piacenza (Piaśeinsa in Piacenza dialect) is an Italian town of 103 498 inhabitants, capital of the homonymous province of Emilia-Romagna. Located on the river Po at the north-western end of Emilia-Romagna, it is nicknamed the Primogenita because in 1848 it was the first Italian city to vote for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia with a plebiscite.
Cathedral, mother church of the Piacenza-Bobbio diocese, built in two
phases, between 1122 and 1150 and 1202 and 1235 (or between 1207 and
1250 according to other sources) in Romanesque style with the addition
of Gothic elements in the second phase. The design of the building would
be the work of Niccolò, with whom Wiligelmo would also collaborate. The
interior features the dome frescoed in the seventeenth century by
Morazzone and Guercino. The presbytery and choir were frescoed by
Camillo Procaccini and Ludovico Carracci towards the end of the
sixteenth century: a large part of their works were moved from their
original locations during the nineteenth-century restorations. An iron
cage desired by Ludovico il Moro in 1495, a sort of deterrent for the
criminals of the time.
Basilica of Sant'Antonino, built between
350 and 375 in Romanesque style, was remodeled several times, the last
of which, between 1915 and 1930 by the architect Giulio Ulisse Arata. It
has an octagonal bell tower, a cloister dating back to 1483 on the south
side and an entrance, called Portico del Paradiso, built in 1350 by
Pietro Vago. Inside it preserves the relics of Antoninus of Piacenza, a
Christian martyr killed near Travo.
Basilica of San Savino, built
by Bishop Sigifredo and consecrated in 1107, is located in the place
where San Savino, second bishop of Piacenza, had founded a basilica in
the 4th century AD. During the eighteenth century the building was
radically remodeled by altering the original Romanesque style with the
addition of stuccos and other ornaments inside and the neoclassical
reconstruction of the facade, which took place in 1721.
Basilica
of San Francesco d'Assisi located in Piazza Cavalli. It was built in
Lombard Gothic style between 1278 and 1373. Two buttresses, a rose
window, a spire and some spiers are visible on the façade, while flying
buttresses are present on the sides; on the right one part of the
cloisters still exists, of which a portico remains. Inside, adorned with
frescoes from the 15th and 16th centuries, the annexation of the city to
the Kingdom of Sardinia was proclaimed in 1848. The median portal of the
basilica has a lunette with the stigmatized relief of St. on the right
wall of the ambulatory, there is a bas-relief with the Rector in a chair
and friars, executed in the workshop of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo around
1490. The patriot Giuseppe Manfredi, president of the Senate of the
Kingdom of Italy, who died in 1918 is buried in the basilica .
Basilica of San Giovanni in Canale, founded in 1220 by the Dominicans,
was enlarged with the construction of three bays in the mid-16th
century; in the same period the choir was also enlarged. Among the
various sepulchral monuments present, there is a painted tomb, unique in
Piacenza, and the large sarcophagus of the Scotti family. The sepulcher
of Guglielmo da Saliceto, from 1501, placed in the cloister denotes the
characteristics of Amadeo's style.
Basilica of Santa Maria di
Campagna, a Renaissance-style building built between 1522 and 1528 to a
design by Alessio Tramello to replace a pre-existing sanctuary, is
located in Piazzale delle Crociate, so called because it was here during
the Council of Piacenza in March 1095 , Pope Urban II announced the
first crusade, officially banned at the subsequent Council of Clermont.
Initially a Greek cross, it was later transformed into an inverted Latin
cross through the lengthening of the presbytery, which was completed in
6 years. The dome and two chapels are decorated with frescoes by
Giovanni Antonio Sacchi known as il Pordenone. Inside there are works by
Galeazzo, Antonio, Giulio and Bernardino Campi, Camillo Procaccini,
Guercino and Malosso. It also contains two pipe organs made by the
Serassi of Bergamo. The larger one, located in cornu Epistolae, was
built between 1825 and 1838 to a design by the organist and organ
composer Father Davide da Bergamo. Instead, the smaller organ, located
in the nave on the floor, was built in 1836, originally a "house"
instrument of the Serassi family and was placed in the basilica in 1991
from the Municipal theater.
Church of San Sisto Renaissance
basilica which boasts a precious wooden choir from 1514. Built in the
14th century where previously there was a temple built in 874 at the
behest of the Empress Angilberga, wife of Ludovico II the Younger and it
is the first religious work of the architect Alessio Tramello in his
maturity. It houses a copy of Raffaello Sanzio's masterpiece, the
Sistine Madonna: the original, made for the church in Piacenza, was sold
by the Benedictines in 1754 to Augustus III, king of Poland and elector
of Saxony. Following the unification of Italy, the complex was separated
in two with the church which continued to perform its religious function
and the monastery which was occupied by the 2nd Regiment of bridge
engineers.
Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, basilica built by
Alessio Tramello between the 15th and 16th centuries. The facade has
buttresses and a Baroque-style portal. Inside, the painter Antonio
Beduschi created a Martyrdom of Santo Stefano and a Pietà. The name
perhaps derives from a pilgrim from Piacenza who, returning from a visit
to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, in 938 had a place of worship built
which was later destroyed. In the Napoleonic era it was readapted as a
military hospital and only in 1903 was it once again rededicated to
prayer.
Basilica of Sant'Agostino, dating back to the 16th
century, has a granite façade in the neoclassical style, created by
Camillo Morigia. It is the only church in the city that has a five nave
plan. Fragments of frescoes by Malosso are visible on the walls of the
transept. Deconsecrated after the Napoleonic era, it has become the seat
of a gallery dedicated to contemporary art.
Church of the
Benedictines, built between 1677 and 1681 by Domenico Valmagini at the
behest of Ranuccio II Farnese. Originally part of a complex with a
monastery, closed in 1810, it later became the property of the state.
Church of San Lorenzo, dating back to the 14th century. Inside you
could admire the frescoes of the cycle of Santa Caterina, the work of a
Lombard master from the circle of Giovannino de' Grassi, and moved to
the Civic Museum located in Palazzo Farnese in the twentieth century
after the church had been deconsecrated and used as a warehouse and
shelter and theatre.
Church of San Dalmazio, dedicated to San
Dalmazzo di Pedona, the church with annexed monastery formed a religious
complex already documented in 1040, built on a pre-existing church whose
remains in the crypt can be traced back according to historians to the
seventh century, as a dependency of the The abbey of Val Tolla was also
built in the 7th century by the bishop of Piacenza Catarasino, a former
French Benedictine monk, and managed by the monks of the abbey of San
Colombano di Bobbio, under whose influence and hegemony Val Tolla fell
at the time. The church of San Dalmazio, born as a priory of the abbey,
later became a parish. Suppressed in the 19th century by Bishop Giovanni
Battista Scalabrini, it was erected as a "ducal oratory" by Maria Luigia
of Austria on 24 October 1826, a title that Charles III of Bourbon, on 3
February 1850, replaced with that of "royal oratory". The Confraternity
of the Holy Spirit is responsible for the conservation of the Church of
S. Dalmazio and the annexed buildings owned by her following a donation
by Maria Luigia of Austria.
Church of San Donnino, dating back to
the 12th century and then rebuilt in 1236 in Romanesque style, has a
facade rebuilt in 1889 by Camillo Guidotti.
Church of Sant'Anna,
built for the first time in the 12th century and then rebuilt in 1334,
preserves inside a wooden statue of San Rocco, the work of Giovanni
Angelo Del Maino from 1534.
Basilica of Sant'Eufemia, also in
Romanesque style. The remains of Bishop Aldo Gabrielli of Gubbio, who
consecrated the building, were buried in this church. Inside it
preserves a female figure, a wooden sculpture from around 1516, by
Giovanni Angelo Del Maino.
Palace of the Jesuit college and
church of San Pietro Apostolo
Church of San Pietro, rebuilt by the
Jesuits in 1587 on top of a pre-existing building prior to the year
1000. Next to the church stands the building of the Jesuit college,
completed in 1593 and which has become the seat of the Passerini Landi
library.
Church of Santa Brigida of Ireland, dedicated to the
patroness of Ireland Santa Brigida, was founded between 826 and 850 as a
Benedictine monastery of Santa Brigida by the Irish bishop San Donato of
Fiesole to house Irish pilgrims. The church, together with the annexed
xenodochio, hospital and hospice for pilgrims, dedicated to the Holy
Resurrection, with various possessions and assets was donated on 20
August 850 to the abbey of San Colombano di Bobbio. The donation was
confirmed in 862 in an inventory of the Bobbiesi assets in Piacenza,
enriched with other feudal properties and means including the
entitlements of oil and iron by the court of Soriasco di Santa Maria
della Versa, by Emperor Ludwig II .
Church of San Paolo, a
Baroque-style building dating back to the seventeenth century on a
pre-existing fourteenth-century place of worship, which in turn
succeeded a church prior to the year one thousand. The church has a very
simple facade with a single nave interior with six side chapels. The
works preserved inside San Paolo are San Biagio healing a child and San
Biagio welcomed into paradise by the Redeemer by Giovanni Evangelista
Draghi. By Robert de Longe are Martyrdom of St Blaise. The Madonna with
Child Enthroned is by an anonymous fourteenth-century painter. Di Pietro
and Bartolomeo Baderna are the Episodes of Sacred Scripture and the
fresco with the Fall of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. The frescoes
depicting the Beatitudes are by Luciano Ricchetti while the decorations
of the vault are by Angelo Capelli. The organ loft by Giovanni Leoni is
a project by Andrea Guidotti from Piacenza.
Royal monasteries of
San Tommaso and San Siro (disappeared), of Lombard royal foundation as a
dependency of the Val Tolla abbey, and managed by the monks of the abbey
of San Colombano di Bobbio. The diplomas of the Lombard kings Ildebrando
(744) and Rachis (746) sanctioned the transfer to the bishop of Piacenza
of the possession of the royal city monasteries of San Tommaso and San
Siro, together with the rural ones of Fiorenzuola, Gravago and val di
Tolla; a rector held them in the name of the bishop. On the remains of
the San Siro monastery, the Ricci Oddi modern art gallery was built in
1931.
Palazzo Comunale, called the Gothic, considered as the symbol of the
city. Built starting from 1281 at the behest of Alberto Scoto,
Ghibelline regent of the city.
Palazzo Mulazzani, has an oblique
grand staircase, probably made by Cervini, and the painting by
Sebastiano Galeotti Aurora and Cefalo.
Palazzo Mandelli, built by
Francesco Tomba to a design by Gian Andrea Boldrini between 1745 and
1755; until 1827 it was owned by the Mandelli family, to then become the
ducal seat of Maria Luigia in 1831 with the transfer of the government
from Parma to Piacenza for a semester and, after the unification of
Italy, the seat of the prefecture. Since 1913 it has housed the Piacenza
headquarters of the Bank of Italy.
Palazzo Scotti da Fombio,
built in 1490 on the initiative of Paride and Ercole Scotti, has an
exposed brick facade decorated with a frieze. On the corner of the
building, the frieze features a sculpture representing two people
holding up the Scotti coat of arms. In 1492 the portal was completed,
made by Gregorio Prini in Candoglia marble, which leads to the internal
courtyard, equipped with a loggia. Becoming the property of the Morigi
family in 1869, it became the seat of an institute for male training,
which later became the Morigi university college.
Palazzo Landi,
built in the last years of the 15th century by Manfredo Landi, on the
foundations of a pre-existing building, also owned by the Landis. In
1578 it was requisitioned by Duke Ottavio Farnese following Agostino
Landi's participation in the conspiracy against his father Pierluigi.
Having become state property, it was first used as a Supreme Council of
Justice and then as a finance court. The facade, decorated with a
terracotta frieze with mermaids, medallions and trophies, was built by
Giovanni Battagio da Lodi, who had already designed the temple of the
Incoronata in Lodi and was his son-in-law Agostino De Fonduli. The
marble access portal, decorated with two medallions with male figures,
refers to the triumphal arches and is the work of the sculptor Giovan
Pietro da Rho. The building houses the seat of the court.
Palazzo
Costa, built at the behest of the Costa family at the end of the
seventeenth century on a project by Bibiena. It features a U-shaped
structure with a rococo-style facade and an English garden. It houses
the headquarters of the Horak foundation museum.
Palazzo Rota
Pisaroni, built by Giuseppe Rota in 1762, became the property of the
opera singer Rosamunda Pisaroni in 1830, hosting in those years many
exponents of the world of art and culture. It later became the property
of the Cassa di Risparmio di Piacenza, and houses the headquarters of
the Piacenza and Vigevano Foundation.
Palazzo Somaglia, built
starting from 1688 by order of Count Orazio Cavazzi della Somaglia, has
a façade with three rows of windows and three wrought iron balconies and
a staircase overlooking the loggia, probably added around 1730 to a
design by Domenico Cervini , characterized by four oblique diverging
ramps with a balustrade made of sandstone.
Palazzo Farnese, built
starting from the pre-existing Visconti citadel, was built starting from
1561 on the wish of Ottavio Farnese, second duke of Parma and Piacenza,
and his wife, Margaret of Austria, daughter of Charles I of Spain. After
having been initially entrusted to Francesco Paciotto in 1558, the
building project was completed by Vignola in 1561. The construction
works continued, alternating progress of the works with pauses until
1603, the year in which they were definitively interrupted when the
project del Vignola was halfway through its completion. After being
stripped of all assets and works of art following the accession of
Charles of Bourbon, formerly duke of Parma and Piacenza, to the throne
of the Two Sicilies, in 1734, the building experienced a period of
deterioration being also used to barracks, undergoing further looting by
Napoleon's troops and becoming a shelter for displaced persons after the
Second World War. The recovery of the building began in the 1960s and
underwent various restoration campaigns, becoming the seat of the civic
museums of Piacenza and the State Archives.
Palazzo del
Governatore, a building dating back to 1787, built in neoclassical style
by the architect Lotario Tomba, housed the governor of the city until
the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. On the facade there is a
clock with a sundial and a perpetual calendar on either side created by
Gian Francesco Barattieri. The facade is characterized by its limited
height with two side turrets exactly as high as the central elevation
where the clock is located. The building houses the headquarters of the
local chamber of commerce, while on the ground floor there is a covered
shopping gallery added during the 1950s.
Palazzo dei Mercanti,
located in the homonymous square, was built between 1676 and 1697 to a
design by the Piacenza architect Angelo Caccialupi at the behest of the
college of merchants, from which it takes its name. After the
suppression of the college of merchants, which took place in the
Napoleonic era, it was the seat of the electoral college, the commercial
court and the Teatro della Filodrammatica, and then became the seat of
the municipality.
Municipal Theater.
Teatro Municipale:
Designed by the architect Lotario Tomba to replace the Cittadella
theatre, which was destroyed in 1798 following a fire, and inaugurated
in 1804, it has a façade inspired by that of the Teatro alla Scala in
Milan; the interiors were decorated by Alessandro Sanquirico, set
designer at the Milanese theatre. Above the main hall is the former set
designers' hall, which was converted into a 320-seat auditorium in the
1970s.
Teatro dei Filodrammatici, built at the beginning of the
twentieth century by transforming the church of the monastery of Santa
Franca, deconsecrated after the Napoleonic era. The works were led by
the engineer Giovanni Gazzola who created liberty style exteriors with
butterfly wing decorations and wrought iron parts, while the interiors
have a more nineteenth-century taste with floral decorations.
Mucinasso Castle: located in the hamlet of the same name and built in
an unspecified period, in the Middle Ages it was destroyed by the forces
of Enzo di Svevia. It became the property of the Radini Tedeschi family
in 1486. In 1503 Giovanni Radini Tedeschi forwarded a request for the
reconstruction of the manor, which was in poor condition, to the French
king Louis XII. The building remained in the Radini Tedeschi family even
when it lost the feud of Mucinasso. In 1916 it was sold by Countess
Leopolda Radini Tedeschi, becoming the property of the Marquises
Malvicini Fontana di Nibbiano. The building has been heavily remodeled
over the centuries, while the moat was filled in in the twentieth
century.
Torre della Razza: Originally owned by the Raggia family,
from which the name of the building derives, in an altered manner, in
1687 a plot of land located near the tower was granted by the Farnese
Ducal Chamber to Count Giovanni Battista Radini-Tedeschi, however
whether construction was included in it is not known. An agricultural
farm was later attached to the tower which depended on the parish work
of San Giovanni in Canale and finally became state property. The tower,
probably built in the sixteenth century, is located near the Via Emilia
and the bridge over the Nure stream.
Public promenade, called Facsal (or Faxhall): it is a tree-lined
avenue just under 2 km long located on a part of the Renaissance wall.
Shaded by centuries-old plane trees and in a predominant position with
respect to the surrounding places, it is a place for walking or resting
on the numerous benches scattered around it. It starts from the historic
center (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II) and reaches Piazzale della Libertà,
not far from the railway station. The name Facsal is a distortion of
that of Vauxhall Gardens in London [104], gardens whose popularity in
the early 19th century grew to the point of making their name a generic
term for tree-lined gardens located in other cities.
Via Taverna
(Strä Alvä or Strä Lvä), with the nearby via Campagna was one of the
most popular areas of the historic centre, inhabited by people of humble
extraction. Traditionally the area was considered the residence of those
who have been from Piacenza for countless generations and in the
imagination it was the place of Piacenza's specificities par excellence.
The name strada Levata derives from the fact that the street was in a
higher position than other neighboring streets such as via Campagna.
Piazza Cavalli (Piassa Caväi) is the thirteenth-century square on
which the Gothic palace, the Governor's palace and the church of San
Francesco stand and from which via XX Settembre starts. It takes its
name from the two equestrian statues depicting Ranuccio and Alessandro
Farnese, created by Francesco Mochi da Montevarchi between 1612 and
1628.
Via XX Settembre (the Strä Dritta), known for its wrought
iron balconies, connects Piazza Duomo and Piazza Cavalli as it was
customary in the Middle Ages to connect the symbol of political power
with religious power with a straight road. It was renamed via XX
Settembre to forge popular memory on the memory of the conquest of Rome
by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. It is the city street dedicated to
shopping par excellence, together with Corso Vittorio Emanuele (San
Raimond or, more recently, al Curs). In some historical periods it was
also called the Strä di Urévas (the Street of the Goldsmiths) because
there were several goldsmith shops.
The muntä di ratt is the
characteristic staircase that connects via Mazzini to the lower via San
Bartolomeo (San Burtlamé). According to popular tradition, it was called
the "mountain of mice" because these rodents would have traveled it in
order to leave the lower city areas adjacent to the Po during floods and
river floods. In reality, it is more probable that the etymology can be
traced back to "montata ratta", an expression which meant a steep climb.
Porta Galera was once a popular neighborhood in the historic center.
This is how the people of Piacenza called the terminal parts of via
Scalabrini and via Roma, with relative adjacencies, included in the
parish of Sant'Anna. The name perhaps derived from the presence in
medieval times of a fort of modest dimensions to which was annexed a
tower with prison function used to imprison thieves.
Piazzale
Roma, also known as the Lupa, is the old gate in the walls that turned
towards Rome. Its nickname derives from the monumental column placed in
the center of the square on the apex of which the she-wolf, symbol of
Rome, is carved with the infants Romulus and Remus, a work commissioned
in 1938 to commemorate the proclamation of Vittorio Emanuele III as
emperor of Ethiopia. It is located at the southern end of via Roma and
via Scalabrini and marks the beginning of the via Emilia.
Sant'Agnese (Sant'Agnesa) district, once popular, on the edge of the
historic center that bears the name of the patron saint of boatmen,
being once the area equipped with a passage that allowed boats coming
from the Po to go up the Fodesta cable to enter the city walls.
Piazza Borgo, a square built in medieval times to the west of the limits
of the old Roman city. It was formed around the 11th century following
the phenomenon of urbanization with which peasant masses arrived from
the countryside hoping to find fortune in the city. Not finding the
perimeter of the old Roman walls, they built their houses outside the
urban area, houses that took the name of suburb, from which the name of
the square then derived. Via del Castello, via Campagna and via Taverna
branch off from this square, three of the streets considered historic by
the people of Piacenza.
Trebbia river regional park: on the edge of the urban area, the
municipality of Piacenza is affected by the last segment of the park. In
the city section, which extends for 8.5 km from the border with the
municipality of Gossolengo to the confluence of the Trebbia with the Po,
there is an area equipped with cycle-pedestrian paths and street
furniture. Established in 2009, the protected area extends for 4000
hectares and for about thirty kilometers along the lower course of the
river and the surrounding floodplain areas, up to the municipality of
Rivergaro. In this steppe environment made up of gravel islands, strips
of arid prairie and woods, various species of migratory birds transit
and stop, especially ducks; of particular relevance is the presence of
the big eye. The flora is characterized by the presence of particularly
rich steppe formations and low shrubs, which are home to various
Apennine species and some orchids.
Parco Papa Giovanni Paolo II,
commonly known as Parco della Galleana, from the name of the neighboring
district of the southern suburbs, is the largest city park. In the green
area of approximately 150,000 m², of which 100,000 was lawn, there was a
military powder magazine (that is, an ammunition depot) used until the
Second World War. It was converted into a park in the early 1980s. The
park is equipped with toilets, a considerable amount and square footage
of walkways and paths within the wooded part that can be traveled on
foot or by mountain bike, three water fountains and a series of
information boards that provide information on the plants and animals
that live there. Large grassy areas alternate with trees and shrubs of
spontaneous species, with larger oaks, with more or less thick wooded
patches and clearings. A row of cherry and oak young mixed woods
characterized by hedges and shrubs composed of blackthorn, hawthorn,
wild rose and bramble, here and there there are specimens of field elm,
hackberry, rustican, mulberry and walnut of moderate size.
Eighteenth-century maps have made it possible to identify a military
post in the area in question outside the sixteenth-century walls that
protected the city. In June 1746, during the War of the Austrian
Succession, the area was at the center of a bloody battle between the
army of Maria Theresa of Austria, an ally of the Kingdom of Sardinia,
and the Franco-Spanish troops.
Parco di Montecucco: second city
park by extension, it is located in the south-eastern suburbs and
connected to the Papa Giovanni Paolo park via a cycle path. The trees,
tall and deciduous, planted after the works started in 1997, are typical
of the area, so as to faithfully reflect the surrounding nature. Among
them are dogwoods, ash trees, oaks, black hornbeams, laburnums and
hackberries. The tree covers alternate with areas for picnics, games,
sports, tranquility and reading. The park of Montecucco covers an area
of 16 hectares.
Giardini Margherita: in a romantic
nineteenth-century style, they are the main green area of the historic
centre. Within a scheme made up of paths, flower beds of various shapes,
bumps, hills and depressions, there are yews, hackberries, lindens,
elms, plane trees, field maples, horse chestnuts and English oaks,
sophoras, cedars of Lebanon and the Atlas, pine and beech trees, as used
in 19th century gardens. Among them there are also some secular trees: a
beech and three cedars, one of them classified as a monumental tree.
From the 19th century are a small temple dedicated to Psyche, an obelisk
and another small temple that housed a bust of Giuseppe Mazzini placed
to decorate the flower beds; subsequently, an iron pavilion was
introduced for shows, statues and busts of the dialect poets Egidio
Carella, Valente Faustini and the batuśa (the common woman from Piacenza
immortalized in a poem by Faustini), as well as other local
personalities (on the outside there is instead a statue of Giuseppe
Garibaldi). The Margherita gardens, so named in 1893 in honor of the
queen consort Margherita of Savoy, initially belonged to a noble family
who built them in 1822 and then partially ceded them to the municipality
of Piacenza in 1856; the body acquired them definitively in 1880.
By plane
Milan Linate is the closest airport.
Parma airport at
67 km
Bologna airport
Brescia-Montichiari Airport
Bergamo-Orio
al Serio airport at 113 km
Milan-Linate airport at 66 km
Milan-Malpensa airport at 120 km
By car
In Piacenza two
important motorways cross: the Autostrada del Sole and the Turin -
Brescia motorway.
On the train
Piacenza station is located on
railway lines of national importance for north-south connections. The
railway station is located at the entrance to the historic center in
Piazzale Guglielmo Marconi.
The historic center can be visited on foot.
By public
transport
It is possible to move around the city with the city buses
managed by Seta, whose terminal and ticket office are located in Piazza
Cittadella (tel. +39 840 000 216).
By car
Cars can be left in
various free, paid and guarded car parks located at the entrance to the
city, at the gates of the historic center and in the historic centre.
Free parking
1 Viale Sant'Ambrogio car park, Viale Sant'Ambrogio
(next to the station). 750 seats but often full.
2 Station Parking
(next to the station). 300 seats
3 Piazzale Milano/via Maculani car
park, Piazzale Milano/via Maculani. 150 seats
4 Parking via Del
Guazzo, via Del Guazzo. 100 places
5 Via Anguissola car park, Via
Anguissola. 300 seats
6 Hospital parking, Via XXI Aprile. 240 seats
7 Viale Malta car park, Viale Malta. 450 seats
By bike
You can
get around on two wheels thanks to the regional bike sharing service "Mi
muovo in bici" or by means of the bicycle rental service active at the
train station in Piazzale Guglielmo Marconi.
Sant'Antonino Fair (Patronal Feast). It takes place on July 4th on
the occasion of the celebration of the patron saint.
Feast of Santa
Rita of Cascia.
Law Festival.
Piacenza Jazz Fest.
White dinner.
Pleasant Fridays.
Homeofest. International Homeopathy Festival which
takes place in May. It alternates with specialist conferences musical,
artistic and cultural appointments.
Shows
1 Municipal Theatre, via G. Verdi, 41, ☎ +39 0523 49 2251
(ticket office), info@teatripiacenza.it. Designed by the architect
Lotario Tomba to replace the Cittadella theater which was destroyed in
1798 following a fire, and inaugurated in 1804, it has a facade inspired
by that of the Scala theater in Milan; the interiors were decorated by
Alessandro Sanquirico, set designer at the Milanese theatre. Above the
main hall is the former set designers' hall, which was converted into a
320-seat auditorium in the 1970s.
San Mateo Theatre.
2 Teatro dei
amateur dramatics, via Santa Franca 33. Built at the beginning of the
twentieth century by transforming the church of the monastery of Santa
Franca, deconsecrated after the Napoleonic era. The works were led by
the engineer Giovanni Gazzola who created liberty style exteriors with
butterfly wing decorations and wrought iron parts, while the interiors
have a more nineteenth-century taste with floral decorations.
Hall of
the Teatines.
President Theater.
Trieste 34.
Modest prices
1 Royal Burger - sandwich shop, Via Emilio
Perinetti, 6, ☎ +39 0523 384773.
2 McDonald's Piacenza Station, P.le
Marconi snc, ☎ +39 0523 315702.
3 La Piadineria, Via Chiapponi, 17/c,
☎ +39 0523 305852. Fast food.
Average prices
4 La Carrozza -
restaurant, Via X Giugno, 122, ☎ +39 0523 326297.
5 Amore Verace
Pizzeria, Via Don Alberto Carozza, 3, ☎ +39 0523 489965.
6 Grotta
Azzurra restaurant, Via Giacomo Morigi, 35, ☎ +39 0523 458765.
7
Pizzeria Zelig, Via Pietro Cella, 51A, ☎ +39 0523 712389.
8 Pizzeria
Tosello Piacenza, Via Francesco Daveri, 10, ☎ +39 0523 324824.
Modest prices
1 Don Zermani Hostel, Via Zoni, 38/40, ☎ +39 0523
712319, fax: +39 0523 712319, info@ostellodipiacenza.it. The "Don
Zermani" hostel is located a few steps from the historic center of
Piacenza, in a residential area of the city, quiet and well served by
public transport. The structure has no architectural barriers, has an
elevator and services suitable for customers with special needs.
Average prices
2 Idea Hotel, Via Emilia Pavese, 114/A, ☎ +39 0523
493811, fax: +39 02 49522251, reservation.piacenza@ideahotel.it. The
Idea Hotel Piacenza is a 3-star hotel located just 200 meters from the
Piacenza Ovest exit of the A21 Turin-Piacenza-Brescia motorway. The city
center of Piacenza is about 2.5 km away.
3 Park Hotel, Strada Val
Nure 7, ☎ +39 0523 712600, fax: +39 0523 453024, park.pc@bestwestern.it.
Easily accessible from any motorway exit. Ideal for business stays and
for food and wine itineraries in search of a now forgotten authenticity
that Piacenza and its surroundings can still offer in a rich historical
and naturalistic context.
High prices
4 Hotel Ovest, Via Primo
Maggio, 82, ☎ +39 0523 712222, fax: +39 0523 711301. Located on one of
the main roads just outside the center of Piacenza, Hotel Ovest offers
modern rooms with free internet access and a 32" flat screen TV.
5
Grande Albergo Roma, Via Cittadella, 14, ☎ +39 0523 323201, fax: +39
0523 330548. Located in the historic center of the city, a stone's throw
from the famous Piazza Cavalli, the Grande Albergo Roma has been the
symbol of tradition for forty years hotel in Piacenza.
Piacenza is located in the Po Valley at an altitude of 61 m above sea level. It is located on the right bank of the Po, between the mouths of the Trebbia river to the west and the Nure stream to the east. About fifteen kilometers to the south appear the slopes of the Piacenza hills, the first offshoots of the Ligurian Apennines. Its geographical position, at the crossroads between Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Emilia, has always determined its strategic-military destiny and has made it an important motorway and railway junction.
The distance from the sea
accentuates the continental characteristics of the Piacenza climate
compared to the rest of the region; consequently, the maximum winter
temperatures are lower than in other cities in the region and
rainfall is greater. The winter lows recorded are also lower than
those of the nearby Lombard cities. The proximity of the city to the
river Po leads as a consequence that, in all periods of the year,
the climate is characterized by high humidity: in winter the
phenomenon of fog, generated by thermal inversion, occurs with great
frequency, while summer weather conditions are often characterized
by heat, generated by high relative humidity in the part of the
atmosphere closest to the ground.
Record snowfall was
recorded until the end of the 1980s. In the days of the 1985
snowfall that hit northern Italy, 90 cm of snow was exceeded with a
record temperature of -22.5 ° C recorded at the Piacenza San Damiano
meteorological station. Snow in Piacenza has always fallen during
the winter period, a rather natural phenomenon, but between the end
of the 90s and the first decade of the 2000s the phenomenon became
rarefied with a decrease in the frequency and intensity of
snowfalls. In the winter of 2008/2009, record snowfalls were
recorded. The coldest month of the year is January with an average
temperature of 0.8 ° C while the hottest is July, with an average
temperature of 22.9 ° C.
Populated since ancient times by populations of
Ligurian lineage, the territory corresponding to today's Piacenza
was at one point conquered first by the Etruscans, then by the Celts
and finally by the Romans, who founded the colony of Placentia in
218 BC.
Piacenza was, together with nearby Cremona, the first
Roman colony under Latin law in northern Italy, playing the
important strategic role of military outpost against the armies of
Hannibal, who moved from Spain to reach Italy and bring devastation
there. The city resisted Punic attacks and flourished as a
commercial center on the Via Emilia. The via Mediolanum-Placentia
also passed through Piacenza, a Roman road that connected Mediolanum
(Milan) with Placentia (Piacenza) via Laus Pompeia (Lodi Vecchio).
The Christianization of the city also took place through the
work of martyrs such as Sant'Antonino, a centurion from Piacenza
killed during the reign of Emperor Diocletian who later became the
patron saint of the city and to whom the first Piacenza cathedral
was dedicated, built between 350 and 375 AD. In 476 A.D. near the
city there was a battle between Germanic mercenaries and the last
Roman troops which led to the deposition of the last Western Roman
emperor, Romulus Augustus, by the king of Heruli Odoacer.
Having become the seat of a Lombard duchy, then conquered by the
Franks, the city acquired greater importance around the year one
thousand, being along the route of the Via Francigena. From 1126 it
was a free municipality and in 1167 it was among the cities that
formed the Lombard League as part of the clashes with Barbarossa,
who was defeated by the alliance between the municipalities in 1176
in Legnano. In 1183, at the basilica of Sant'Antonino, the
preliminaries of the peace of Constance were signed between the
delegates of the Lombard League and the imperial delegates. After
two centuries of struggles between the noble families of opposing
Guelph and Ghibelline faiths, starting from 1335 the city was
subjected to the dominion of the Visconti family. Later it remained,
with the exception of short periods, under the Milanese dominion
until 1521 when it passed under the control of the state of the
Church.
In 1545 it was erected as a duchy by the Pope
together with nearby Parma, initially becoming the capital of the
Duchy of Parma and Piacenza governed by the Farnese family. After
the assassination of Duke Pierluigi Farnese following a conspiracy
of Piacenza nobles led by Giovanni Anguissola, the city briefly
returned under Milanese control, before returning part of the Duchy
of Parma and Piacenza governed by Pierluigi's son, Ottavio Farnese
in 1556 .
With the extinction of the Farnese family, starting
from 1731 it was ruled by the Bourbon family. Conquered by the
French troops during the Napoleonic period, it was aggregated to the
empire as part of the Taro department. After the restoration the
duchy was reconstituted assigning it to Maria Luigia of Austria, who
kept it until her death, on the occasion of which the state returned
to the Bourbons.
With a plebiscite held on 10 May 1848
Piacenza was the first city to ask for annexation to the Kingdom of
Sardinia, the nucleus of the future Kingdom of Italy, earning the
nickname of the first-born city of Italy. Piacenza then became
definitively part of the Savoy state in 1860.
Heavily
affected in the world wars, it then underwent agricultural and
industrial development. Later, having obtained the recognition of a
city of art by the Emilia-Romagna region, Piacenza also developed a
tourist vocation.
The city of Piacenza, together with Cremona, is home to one of the
campuses of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. In the Piacenza
campus of the university there are degree courses pertaining to three
departments: economics and law; agricultural, food and environmental
sciences and educational sciences. In the city there is also a
territorial pole of the Milan Polytechnic which offers degree courses in
engineering and architecture.
Finally, there is also a branch of
the University of Parma which offers degree courses in nursing and
medicine and surgery in English. The city's educational offer is
completed by the Giuseppe Nicolini conservatory and the study of
theology active in the Alberoni college, affiliated to the theology
faculty of the pontifical university "San Tommaso d'Aquino" in Rome.
Palazzo Farnese houses the headquarters of the municipal civic
museums, divided into nine collections dedicated respectively to
medieval frescoes, the archaeological museum, weapons, carriages,
Farnese Fasti, Risorgimento, art gallery, sculptures and glass and
ceramics. The archaeological section of the museum houses the liver of
Piacenza, a bronze model of a liver used during religious ceremonies
dating back to the period between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. and
found in 1877 in the territory of the municipality of Gossolengo
In 1991, after a promoting committee had been set up in the mid-1980s,
the Natural History Museum of Piacenza was established, initially housed
in Palazzo Scotti da Fombio and moved in 2007 to the former ice factory
of the Urban Center, an area of the city created following the
redevelopment of the former city slaughterhouse where part of the campus
of the Piacenza campus of the Milan Polytechnic is also housed. The
museum houses a series of collections coming largely from the
collections conserved in the Romagna high school.
The museum is
divided into three sections, each of which is located in a room,
dedicated respectively to the plains, hills and mountains; each of the
sections presents a focus on the typical environments of the province of
Piacenza such as the river Po for the plain, the ophiolitic outcrops and
gullies for the hills and streams, beech woods and summit pastures for
the mountains. There are also three collections dedicated to botany,
mineralogy and zoology. The botanical collection consists of several
herbariums, the oldest of which dates back to the 19th century. The
mineral collection is made up of collections from the Romagna institute
originating from the last years of the 19th century on the initiative of
Professor Del Lupo, while the zoological collection includes an
ornithological collection resulting from the research work of the
Piacenza doctor and ornithologist Edoardo Imparati.
The Ricci
Oddi modern art gallery is also located in the city, originating from
the private collection collected by Giuseppe Ricci Oddi starting from
1898 and initially housed in Ricci Oddi's private home. The works were
donated to the city in 1924 and the gallery was opened to the public in
1931, hosting a series of works dating from between 1830 and 1930,
almost exclusively of figurative art, with an almost total exclusion of
the arts considered minor and with a substantial balance between works
from different areas of Italy, limiting the presence of foreign artists
only to the influence that their works have had on Italian art. After
the founder's death in 1937, the gallery continued to expand its
collection thanks to the bequests of Ricci Oddi himself. The gallery
houses Gustav Klimt's Portrait of a Lady, painted over an earlier
portrait of a girl by Klimt himself and considered lost for years. The
painting was stolen from the gallery in 1997, a year after the presence
of the Portrait of a Girl was discovered, and was found inside the
gallery in 2019.
The city's cultural offer is completed by the
Passerini-Landi municipal library, which contains the Landiano code 190,
the oldest manuscript version of Dante's Divine Comedy, bearing the
indication of the year 1336 inside the explicit text, and the Alberoni
college which, in addition to theological studies, houses a natural
history museum, born from the material donated by the botanist and
naturalist Father Zaccaria da Piacenza and the art gallery made up
largely of works collected by Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, to whom we owe
the construction of the complex, during its lifetime; Antonello da
Messina's Ecce Homo is kept inside the gallery.
Piacenza Fridays: the main summer event, it provides for the evening
opening of the shops in the historic center and the placement of
musical, artistic and cultural events in all the squares and streets
inside the circle of the Farnese walls. Normally the event takes place
on Fridays in the months of June and July.
Feast of Sant'Antonino:
held on July 4 of each year, on the day of the patron saint of the city,
Sant'Antonino. For the occasion, various initiatives are organized
including the Holy Mass hosted in the basilica of Sant'Antonino
celebrated by the bishop of Piacenza-Bobbio in the presence of all the
main city authorities. Furthermore, the main city honor is presented,
the Antonino d'oro, established in 1986 by the Chapter of the Antoninian
basilica and awarded in alternate years to a personality from the lay
world and a personality from the ecclesiastical world. At the same time,
a trade fair event is also organized for the occasion, consisting of
stalls located along the Viale del Pubblico Passeggio and other
neighboring streets of the historic centre.
Feast of Santa Rita da
Cascia: celebrated on 22 May. The important event for the people of
Piacenza devoted to the "Santa della Rosa" is characterized by a mass in
the church of the Capuchins, in whose churchyard blessed roses and
pennants depicting the Saint in prayer are distributed to the faithful,
and by a long procession of cars for the blessing of vehicles.
Summer
of San Martino: held on the first Sunday of November. Appointment
designed to revive some traditions of the past and animate the center
through food stands, folklore, historical re-enactments, stalls and
games.
Festival of law: organized between 2008 and 2016 during the
month of September, it consisted of an annual review which involved the
organization of meetings, seminars and debates relating to a specific
variable theme at each edition and which hosted speakers of national and
international fame from the world of politics, sport, religion,
economics and philosophy.
Piacenza Jazz Fest: a festival dedicated to
jazz music which since 2003 has taken place in the city and in the
provincial territory, with some occasional events organized in the
neighboring provinces. During the editions various internationally
renowned artists participated, including Brad Mehldau, Javier Girotto,
Paolo Fresu, Uri Caine, Franco Ambrosetti, Enrico Rava, Franco D'Andrea.