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PARMA - ITALY
Parma is a medieval city in the Italian region
of Emilia-Romagna, with splendid architecture and a fine countryside around
it.
The city was most probably founded and named by the Etruscans, for a parma
(circular shield) was a Latin borrowing, as were many Roman terms for
particular arms, and "Parmeal" "Parmni" and "Parmnial" are names that appear
in Etruscan inscriptions. Diodorus Siculus (XXII, 2,2; XXVIII, 2,1) reported
that the Romans had changed their rectangular shields for round ones,
imitating the Etruscans. Whether the Etruscan encampment was so named
because it was round, like a shield, or whether its situation was a shield
against the Gauls to the north, is more a matter of choice.
Parma, like most northern Italian cities, was
nominally a part of the Holy Roman Empire but locally ruled by its bishops
until the commune gained strength in the early Middle Ages. It fell under
the control of Milan in 1346, was ceded to the Holy See in 1511. The Farnese
pope, Paul III, detached Parma and Piacenza from the Papal States and gave
them as a duchy for his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese, whose
descendents ruled in Parma from 1545 to 1731, when Antonio Farnese
(1679-1731), last male of the Farnese line, died.
The combined Duchy of Parma and Piacenza was given to the House of Bourbon
in a diplomatic shuffle of the European dynastic politics that were played
out in Italy. It remained separate until the unification of Italy in 1860.
It hosts the Teatro Regio, a famous opera theatre.
Stendhal set much of his masterpiece (The Charterhouse of Parma) in the city,
even though there was no "Charterhouse" in real life.
The town is also famous for its cheese "Parmigiano Reggiano" (which pride it
shares with Reggio Emilia), for its Parma ham, and now for its international
commercial brand Parmalat.
Famous people from Parma:
Francesco Mazzola, called 'Il Parmigianino', 16th century painter
Sisto Badalocchio, painter
Giambattista Bodoni, typographer
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