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| Colorno: art and history |
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Built
on the bend of the right bank of the river Parma (X-XI cent.),
Colorno was a strategic point for the control of river traffic
between Emilia and Lombardy.
In 1448 the fortress was conquered by Francesco Sforza who assigned
it to Roberto Sanseverino, his faithful commander.Together with
Barbara Sanseverino, at the end of the 1500s, the severe fortress
was transformed into an animated Renaissance court, and was
embellished with a famous Italian-style garden, box-tree hedges
and flower-beds of roses and labyrinths. The Sanseverino family
lost Colorno in 1612, when Ranuccio I Farnese executed Barbara
and confiscated all her possessions.
The Farnese family then made Colorno into their summer residence.
The sixteenth century fortress was transformed into a luxurious
royal palace and Barbara's garden became a French-inspired park
developed on a scenic scale.
In 1749 Colorno became the Ducal residence of the Borbons.
In this period the structure of the palace was greatly modified:
Filippo entrusted the reconstruction of the stairway of honour
at the centre of the façade towards the garden, to the
French architect Ennemond Alexandre Petitot. Ferdinando then
commissioned the construction of an appartment for himself and
a church and convent for the friars of the Dominican order.
In 1815 the duchy passed to the Empress Maria Luigia of Austria,
who dedicated a great deal of attention to the garden, commissioning
Carlo Barvitius to restructure the garden according to the Romantic
English model. Following the Unification of Italy, the palace
was first used as a military school (1862-64) and later as a
provincial lunatic asylum. Today, the palace, following demanding
restoration work sponsored by the Province of Parma, hosts temporary
exhibitions.
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