Parma

Lore & Background

Parma was already a built-up area in the Bronze Age, with a terramare village. The city was most probably founded and named by the Etruscans. The Roman colony was founded in 183 BC. It was destroyed in April 43 BC and rebuilt by Augustus. Attila sacked the city in 452, and it later became part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and then the Lombard Kingdom. Under Frankish rule, Parma became a county capital in 774. An almost independent commune was created around 1140. The city was besieged in 1247–48 by Emperor Frederick II. In 1545, Pope Paul III detached Parma and Piacenza from the Papal States and gave them as a duchy to his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese. Parma was under French influence after the Peace of Aachen (1748) and annexed to France during the Napoleonic Wars. After the restoration of the Duchy in 1814–15, it passed again to the House of Bourbon in 1847. On 15 September 1859 the dynasty was declared deposed, and Parma entered the newly formed province of Emilia.

In Their Own Story

The air inside the Stadio Ennio Tardini hung heavy with the scent of damp earth and electric tension, a chaotic counterpoint to the sterile precision of Turin. On the pitch, Parma's yellow and blue shirts flowed like liquid mercury, unsettling the rigid, military-grade white-and-black stripes of Juventus. In the 85th minute, the scoreline remained a tense deadlock. A young Gianluigi Buffon—then a prodigy on loan from Roma but wearing his boyhood club's crest—barked commands that cut through the roar of the crowd, his gaze locked on Alessandro Del Piero as he stepped up to take a free kick. The stadium held its breath; this wasn't merely a match, but a referendum on who truly ruled Italian football in the modern age.

Reader's Guide

Parma is known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto, cheese, and surrounding countryside. The city is home to the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world. The Palatine Library houses the largest collection of Hebrew manuscripts in Italy and the second-largest in the world. Notable sites include the cathedral, the central Garibaldi Square (site of the Roman forum), and the summer palace of the Sanseverino in Colorno, turned into a luxurious palace by Ferdinando Bibiena.

Did You Know?

• Parma's Etruscan name was adapted by Romans to describe the round shield called Parma.
• The Palatine Library in Parma holds the largest collection of Hebrew manuscripts in Italy.
• Parma was briefly renamed Chrysopolis ('Golden City') during the Byzantine period.
• The city was a key stage on the Via Francigena, the main road connecting Rome to Northern Europe.