DUCAL PARK - Historic Garden

Occupying almost a quarter of the historic city centre of Parma is the green delight that is the Ducal Park, begun by Duke Ottavio Farnese who, in the middle of the 16th century, began to buy up the land near the "Castle" on the other side of the river and commissioned the architect Vignola to see to its realisation.
In 1561 Vignola, gaining inspiration from the garden architectures of Roman villas, presented his project for the Duke's garden. But over the centuries the Garden was to undergo innumerable alterations according to the dominating tastes of the time. In 1690, for the wedding of Odoardo Farnese and Dorotea Sofia di Neuburg, a fish-pond, still there today, was dug, with a little island in the middle where in 1920 the 1700s fountain of the Trianon was set up: this came from the Colorno Ducal Palace Garden and was restored in 1996.
Once the Farnese family died out in the middle of the 18th century, the park was left to abandon. The Prime Minister of the new Bourbon dukes, Guglielmo Du Tillot, gave the job of revitalising the area to the court architect Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot (his projects are conserved in the State Archives in Parma) who, in turn, studied the works of the best French specialist in garden architecture: Pierre Contant d'Ivry (his drawings are in the Art colection of the Cassa di Risparmio).Thus, the park was given the French appearance that still characterises it today.
The park once again gained its full splendour with the placing of ten marble statues, two modelled groups and several pots, sculpted by Jean Baptiste Boudard (documents at the Fine Arts Academyi)between 1753 and 1766.
Petitot was also commissioned for the project of the woods and the little Arcadian temple (restored in 1998), where in 1769 the wedding of Duke Don Ferdinando di Borbone and Maria Amalia d'Asburgo was celebrated.
Other modifications followed as well as the creation of an "English" garden during the dukedom of Maria Luigia of Austria, until the grand park became the property of the city after the unity of Italy and was opened to the public.
The last "maquillage" of the park was carried out in 1920 by scenographer Giuseppe Carmignani (project in the Parma Historical Archives).
A project for the historical restoration of the park has been neither easy nor simple. The city administration has taken on the task with substantial help from the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation. The intention is to conserve and renovate 18th -century structural elements, still obvious today, while respecting other later modifications, especially those of the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, taking into consideration its destination of a public park.

Once the work of cleaning and care of the green areas and trees, with all naturalistic and cultural considerations respected, is carried out, once the walks are newly gravelled, untypical added elements removed and service areas, museum and exhibition space and restaurant areas created, the Ducal Park will become a civilised place, where nature's tranquillity meets the fascination of art, a place where the visitor can come for exercise, stimulation and cultural growth.

SAN GIOVANNI CONVENT GARDENS - Historic Garden

The Benedictine church of San Giovanni Evangelista was built between 1490 and 1519. The church is part of a large monastic complex of which the cloisters and kitchen-garden also belong, once furnishing medicinal herbs to the famous Pharmacy, active since 1200 and still standing and visible today.
The gardens are on the east side of the church apse and continue to give fruit and vegetables to the Benedictine monks that live in the monumental complex.
The small gardens inside the three monastic cloisters in contrast offer elements for meditation and the contemplation of beauty.

SAN PAOLO CONVENT GARDENS - Historic Garden

The foundation of this disused convent complex goes back to the year 985. Over the centuries it has been substantially renovated and changed. Its period of greatest splendour coincides with the reign of the Mother Superiors Cecilia Bergonzi and Giovanna Piacenza, at the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s.
The garden, entered by way of Borgo Pietro Giordani, is what remains of the old convent kitchen garden and orchard, serving to give food and medicinal herbs to the monastic community; it was transformed in the 1800s to provide a playground for the "A. Tommasini" Girls' School. At that time the fountain, the rocaille grotto, a vast berceaux and a short train circuit, no longer visible, were set up.
With the support of the Nordemilia Coop, the "Abbesses' Garden" has recently been restored. This is the area in front of the Mother Superior's apartments, today know as "San Paolo's Room", frescoed by Correggio with verdure made to look like an open-work berceaux with putti and allegorical figures; other rooms were decorated by Alessandro Araldi.
At the bottom of the park is "St. Catherine's Cell", a small chapel with frescoes by Araldi.
At present, the complex houses the Office of Artistic Patrimony of Parma, as well as the "Guanda" Library, The Historic Institute of the Resistance, the "Balestrazzi" Library and exhibition rooms.

THE CITADEL - Historic Garden

Started by Alessandro Farnese, third duke of Parma, toward the end of the 16th century, and finished by Ranuccio I in 1599, the Parma Citadel is a pentagonal fortress with bastions and moats, once full of water, planned by Francesco Paciotto on the model of the Anversa fortress, with the aid of Smeraldo Smeraldi.
Useless as defence of the city against an enemy that would never arrive from the south, the Citadel was used for centuries by the Dukes of Parma solely as a barracks and political prison. The barracks, with grandiose arcades, followed the pentagonal shape of the enormous central drill-ground.
The main entrance gate is decorated by a marble portal with an ashlar base and a great Farnese coat-of-arms, the work of Simone Moschino. On the left are the stables and on the right at the edge of the drill-ground are the traces of what was the ancient church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The barracks were demolished after the Second World War (only one building was spared; since 1953 it has housed the hostel). Since then, the Citadel has lost its reputation as a fearful place, generously distributing summer shade and cool to young and old who come to walk and exercise (gymnastic equipment has been set up) in the shade of its bastions and moats, recently readied for public use.

BOTANICAL GARDEN - Historic Garden

The Parma Botanical Garden has ancient origins. Already in 1600 an "Orto dei Semplici" was documented, where medicinal plants were cultivated, founded by Ranuccio I Farnese and annexed to the Faculty of Medicine of the University at Palazzo Cusani, in Borgo degli Studi.
The present-day botanical garden, on the south side of the city, not far from the bastions of the Citadel and flanked by the new public walkway, was set up in 1770 by request of Duke Ferdinando I di Borbone, who called on the botanist Abate Giambattista Guatteri to design and run it. The greenhouses and building, in neo-classic style, were designed by the court architect Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot, who finished the job in 1793.
The experimental approach followed by Guatteri was carried on by his student and successor Baldassarre Pascal, who held the university seat and directed the Garden until 1802, the year in which a change in government lead to the discontinuation of science classes, and the Garden was handed over to Bartolomeo Barbieri.
In 1817 he was succeeded by Giorgio Jan, a Hungarian, nominated by Duchess Maria Luigia. He was responsible for finding a new Alpine species on the Grigne, the Silene elisabethae Jan. After Jan went to work in Milan, the chair in Parma and the botanical garden were given to Dr. Giovanni Passerini. Under his direction the Garden moved away from classical schemes in flora and taxonomy and took a more modern course that raised it to international renown.
Following the brief period of De Toni, in 1893 the chair of Botany was assigned to Carlo Avetta and in 1935 to his pupil Francesco Lanzoni. At his death in 1950, the new director of the Institute and Botanical Gardens became Fausto Lona, who made notable improvements especially by enlarging the greenhouses. Since 1984, the Institute and Garden have been directed by Maria Bassi.
Originally an Italian garden, its architecture has been significantly modified according to the specialisation of its various directors. At present, only the central part has preserved its original layout. The rest is a natural garden of an ecological-experimental character with great landscape value as well. In this vast green area, criss-crossed by trails, many centuries-old trees from all the continents may be admired, as well as landscaped sections, areas dedicated to ferns, pools ornate with marsh vegetation complete with nesting ducks, while in the greenhouses there are orchids, insectivorous plants and succulents. A specialised library is housed in the centre building where ancient herbaria may be consulted and seed and pollen collections viewed. The teaching centre of the University Museum of Natural History is also housed here, with its historical centre in the main building of the University.
At the Cassa di risparmio foundation a study of great importance is preserved: the work of Stefano Sanvitale, dated the first half of the 19th century (Vol. ms. with 2 ill by G. Rasori, inv. F 8) which planned for the enlargement and transformation of the Garden to an English Garden, with the creation of specialised habitat such as caves and streams.