Rocca Sanvitale of Fontanellato

History and architecture of the Rocca Sanvitale

The Rocca Sanvitale rises in the centre of the village of Fontanellato, in the heart of the Bassa Parmense about 20 kilometres from Parma. It is one of the few Italian castles still completely surrounded by a water-filled moat, fed by a natural spring: a unique feature that makes it immediately recognisable and one of the most photographed castles in Emilia. The structure, built in 1124 by the Pallavicino as a defence tower, became in 1386 the home of the Sanvitale counts, who held it for over five hundred years until 1948. The absolute artistic treasure of the fortress is the Camera Picta or Stanza di Diana e Atteone, frescoed between 1523 and 1524 by the young Parmigianino for Countess Paola Gonzaga, a peak of Italian Mannerism. Equally unique is the Camera Ottica, a nineteenth-century camera obscura still in working order, the only one of its kind in Italy.

Medieval origins and the Sanvitale

The Rocca of Fontanellato was built in 1124 by the marquises Pallavicino as a defence tower in the Po valley. The original nucleus corresponds to the central keep, still today the entrance gate to the castle and the first structure visible after crossing the bridge over the moat. In 1386 the lands of Fontanellato together with the Rocca were ceded to the Sanvitale family, a powerful Parma house. In 1404 the fief became a county and the fortress was progressively transformed from a military stronghold into an elegant seigneurial residence. The Sanvitale lived there until 1948, when the last count Giovanni sold it to the municipality of Fontanellato, the current owner. The structure preserves the medieval square plan with four corner towers and the perimeter moat fed by spring water: a feature that makes it particularly intact and fascinating.

The Camera del Parmigianino: a Mannerist masterpiece

In 1523-1524 Countess Paola Gonzaga, wife of Galeazzo Sanvitale, commissioned the twenty-one-year-old Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola, 1503-1540) to decorate a small private room. The artist, then at the start of his dazzling career, created a masterpiece there: the vault frescoed with the myth of Diana and Actaeon drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which the goddess, surprised at her bath, transforms the young hunter into a stag. The elongated and sinuous figures, the iridescent colours, the bold perspective and the gentle narrative drama make this Camera Picta one of the peaks of Italian Mannerism and one of the most studied works in art history. The room was Paola Gonzaga's place of private meditation, and according to scholars it would reflect her grief over the loss of her son. Today the Camera del Parmigianino can also be visited in contemplative mode by booking: seated in solitude inside the small room, without guides or other people, for some minutes of pure immersion in art. A unique experience.

The Camera Ottica and the fortress today

In the south tower of the Rocca Sanvitale lies another technical masterpiece: the Camera Ottica, the only working camera obscura still in operation in Italy. It is a small darkened room in which an ingenious system of mirrors and lenses, installed at the end of the nineteenth century by the last count Sanvitale, projects in real time onto the walls the image of the village square outside, like a medieval cinema. The room allowed the count to observe who was arriving at the castle without being seen, but above all to astonish his guests. It has remained perfectly working and today is one of the most evocative attractions of the visit. Beyond the Camera del Parmigianino and the Camera Ottica, the visit includes the noble apartments with original 15th-18th-century furniture, the Banner of the Blessed Virgin (1654-56) five metres long, the ancient vaulted kitchens, the prisons and the sentinel walks. The fortress is also said to be inhabited by the ghost of Maria Sanvitale, a child who died at age 5 in the 19th century, whose presences have been reported by many visitors.