Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale
On Gingerguide's self-guided Parma audio tour, Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale is a stop worth about ~90 min. Stand in front of it, press play for a short narrated story, and put any follow-up question to the built-in AI guide.
- Type castle
- Suggested visit ~90 min
- Parma Parma guide
About Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale
Fontanellato is a small medieval town 18 kilometres west of Parma dominated by the magnificent water-encircled Rocca Sanvitale castle, which contains an extraordinary room frescoed by Parmigianino in 1524, the Diana and Actaeon room, a masterpiece of Mannerist illusionistic painting almost unknown outside Italy.
Fontanellato is a well-preserved medieval town about 18 kilometres west of Parma in the flat agricultural landscape of the Po Valley. The town is dominated by the Rocca Sanvitale, a late medieval castle surrounded on all four sides by a water-filled moat, one of the best-preserved moated castles in northern Italy. The castle was the residence of the Sanvitale family, counts of Fontanellato, and its most important room contains a fresco cycle painted by the young Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola, born in Parma in 1503) in 1524 for Count Galeazzo Sanvitale. The small room is decorated with a complex, illusionistic representation of the myth of Diana and Actaeon, the hunter who, having accidentally seen the goddess Diana bathing, is transformed into a stag and hunted down by his own hounds. The composition uses the walls and ceiling to create a unified, all-encompassing painted environment in a manner similar to Correggio's Camera di San Paolo, and with equal brilliance. The room is one of the most extraordinary small-scale artistic environments in northern Italy.
Did you know? Parmigianino painted the Diana and Actaeon room in the Rocca Sanvitale at age 20, in 1524, the same year he left for Rome, where he was one of the few artists present during the catastrophic Sack of Rome in 1527, when Imperial troops ransacked the city for days; he was captured but eventually escaped.
How much time do you need at Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale?
Around ~90 min works well for Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale — time to look properly and listen to its story on the spot. Linger if you like; nothing on a self-guided walk is on a clock.
Should you stop at Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale?
Yes — Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale made the cut as one of 20 places the Gingerguide team researched and narrated across Parma. The story tells you why it is worth the stop, and the AI guide fills in anything you still wonder.
Nearby stops in Parma
Hear the story of Fontanellato & Rocca Sanvitale
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