The Church of Santa Elisabetta is an important example of the religious and architectural heritage of Parma, its history bound up with the lives of the nuns known as the "della Campana" or "della Colombina". The history of this sacred building begins in 1487, when the friars of San Francesco granted this monastic community a house in the area where Piazzale Salvo D'Acquisto now stands. The settlement quickly expanded and the very next year an adjacent property was incorporated, including a chapel on Strada Sant'Anna that was destined to become the convent's oratory.
The structure of the church
The current structure of the church dates from 1669, when it was decided to demolish the original oratory along with other buildings to make way for a new construction. The initial project was entrusted to Carlo Magnani, an engineer working at the city's Office of Repair. The works were however interrupted, and after Magnani's death the church was finally completed in 1674.
From an architectural point of view, the church displays interesting features that bear witness to the period of transition between Renaissance and Baroque. The plan is square, with a distinctive feature in the form of an octagon inscribed within it. While the overall architectural conception remains in a Renaissance manner, the interior reveals a clear Baroque influence, particularly evident in the decorations carried out at the start of the 18th century.
The frescoes that adorn the interior were the work of artists belonging to the Emilian school, who unfortunately remain anonymous. An exception is represented by the two angels placed at the sides of the window in the left-hand chapel, attributed to the Florentine painter Sebastiano Galeotti. The high altar was originally embellished with an altarpiece by the Belluno-born Sebastiano Ricci at the start of the 18th century, today held in a private collection.
The history of the church
The history of the church took a dramatic turn in 1805, when the Napoleonic administration decreed the suppression of the monastic community and the confiscation of its property. The convent was converted into the infirmary of the prisons that had recently been moved to the nearby San Francesco friary. The church itself and the cloistered chapel, joined together after the dividing wall was removed, were downgraded to a storehouse.
The two centuries that followed marked a period of decline for the complex. The building passed through various uses, gradually deteriorating. In the 1970s much of the original complex, including the convent, was demolished. Only the church and the adjoining chapel survived, but they continued to be used inappropriately for several decades.
The building's revival has come only in recent times. In December 2008, with the opening of the Casa del Suono, the church and the chapel were fully restored and returned to a use more in keeping with their historical and architectural importance. This intervention has preserved one of the last witnesses of a religious complex that for centuries shaped this part of Parma.
The restoration not only saved the building from decay but also allowed its architectural and artistic peculiarities to be rediscovered and enhanced. The combination of Renaissance elements in the structure and Baroque decoration in the interior makes the Church of Santa Elisabetta a significant example of the evolution of architectural and decorative styles between the 17th and 18th centuries. Its history also reflects the complex events that affected many religious buildings during the Napoleonic period and in the centuries that followed, up to its recent revaluation as part of the city's cultural heritage.