Visit to the town of Fontanellato - « Back to Tours

Fontanellato is entered through a long avenue flanking the Beata Vergine Shrine, where you are advised to park your car. The center is entered through the "Porta di Sopra" or Voltone: almost suddenly the Rocca Sanvitale, named after the noble family who inhabited it for many centuries, appears in a majestic square.

After its Longobardic foundation, Fontanellato owes its development to the Sanvitale family, who in 1404 rebuilt the castle and fortified the town. The castle, preserved to this day, dominates the center of the town. Surrounded by a moat, it has a square shape and it has four bodies around a square yard.

The first floor contains the apartments of the Sanvitale, with XVI to XVIII century furniture, currently turned into a museum.

The myth of Parmigianino's masterpiece

The true treasure of the castle is on the ground floor: the room of Diana and Actaeon, fresco painted in 1524 by Parmigianino for Paola Gonzaga and Galeazzo Sanvitale.

The mythological tale depicted by Parmigianino, from Ovid's book of "Metamorphoses", is developed in the upper portion of the four walls in thirteen lunettes: Actaeon is transformed into a stag

by Diana, who he surprised at her bath with nymphs, then his dogs tear him to pieces. The vault contains an arbour of greenery, amorini and putti which hold festoons of fruit.
Other buildings of Fontanellato worth visiting include the parochial church, in Romanic style with a wooden vestry, the completely renewed St. Gaetano church and the Shrine entitled to the Beate Virgin of the Rosary.

The main events include the fair of August the 15 and the "Slow" evening with gastronomic booths and a pyrotechnical-musical show from the Rocca on June the 24.

Some photos: