Parma (redirected from Parma, Italy)

Parma, city, Italy

Parma (pär`mä), city (1991 pop. 170,520), capital of Parma prov., in Emilia-Romagna, N Italy, on the Parma River and on the Aemilian Way. It is a rich agricultural market, a transportation junction, and a major industrial center. Manufactures include textiles, machinery, footwear, pharmaceuticals, processed food, and fertilizer. Parmesan cheese is also produced. Parma was the site of a Roman colony (founded 183 B.C.) and became a free commune by the 12th cent. It later was ruled by outside powers (particularly Milan and France) and in 1513 was added to the Papal States by Pope Julius II. In 1545, Pope Paul III created the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, a substantial territory, and bestowed it on his son, Pier Luigi Farnese, whose descendants ruled it (with interruptions) until 1731. The duchy then passed, through the female line, to the Spanish Bourbons; the cadet line of Bourbon-Parma began in 1748. It was displaced in 1802, when Napoleon I annexed the duchy to France. The Congress of Vienna (1814–15) awarded it to Marie Louise, who ruled it from 1816 to 1847; it was then restored to the Bourbons. In 1860 the duchy was incorporated into the kingdom of Sardinia. The Parma school of painting flourished there in the 16th cent.; its leading artists were Correggio (who executed frescoes for the Convent of St. Paul and for the Romanesque cathedral) and Parmigianino. Points of interest in the city include an octagonal Romanesque baptistery (13th cent.); the garden palace (1560); and the Palazzo della Pilotta (1583–1622; damaged in World War II), which contains the National Museum of Antiquities, the National Gallery, and the Farnese Theatre. Parma was a center of learning in the Middle Ages and has a university.

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Parma, city, United States

Parma (pär`mə), city (1990 pop. 87,876), Cuyahoga co., NE Ohio, a suburb S of Cleveland; settled 1816, inc. 1924. Named for the Italian city of Parma, it is residential with a large industrial research center. Automobile parts and metal goods are manufactured in the city. Its population declined in the late 20th cent. in conjunction with the greater N Ohio area.

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Parma

City (pop., 2007 est.: 177,069), Emilia-Romagna region, northern Italy. Located on the Parma River, the site was founded by the Romans in 183 BC; it became an episcopal see in the 4th century AD. Parma was destroyed by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric I but was rebuilt in the Middle Ages. Made part of the duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1545, it was held by the Farnese family and later passed to the Austrians. In 1815 Napoleon gave the city to his second consort, Marie-Louise. In 1861 it became part of united Italy. It was badly damaged during World War II but was rebuilt. It is the commercial centre of an agricultural region and is famous for its Parmesan cheese. Sites of interest include the 12th-century Romanesque cathedral, the 13th-century baptistery, and the university (founded in the 11th century).

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Parma

1. a city in N Italy, in Emilia-Romagna: capital of the duchy of Parma and Piacenza from 1545 until it became part of Italy in 1860; important food industry (esp Parmesan cheese). Pop.: 163 457 (2001)

2. a city in NE Ohio, south of Cleveland. Pop.: 83 861 (2003 est.)

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Parma 

a city in northern Italy on the Parma River, a tributary of the Po River, in Emilia-Romagna. Capital of Parma Province. Population, 174,400 (1971).

Parma is an important transportation and agricultural center. It has industries that produce agricultural machinery, cannery equipment, glass, ceramics, cement, and fertilizers. It also has oil-refining, pharmaceutical, and perfume (the well-known Parma violet scent) industries, as well as textile, garment, shoe, paper, and food-processing (including cheese) industries. The city is host to yearly international canned-goods fairs. The University of Parma, established in 1065, is in the city, as are the Academy of Fine Arts, Pinacoteca Stuard, and the Museum of Chinese Art. Parma also has a conservatory.

Parma was first an Etruscan, then a Gallic, settlement. At the beginning of the 12th century it became a commune, but its bishop ruler continued to maintain authority; it attained the status of an independent republic in 1248. In 1167 it joined the Lombard League. In the 14th and 15th centuries it witnessed a struggle between the Correggio, De’ Rossi, Terzi, and other families who laid claim to power in the city. At various times from the 14th to the 16th century, it was part of the Duchy of Milan. It came under the authority of the pope in 1521, during the Italian Wars (1494–1559). In 1545 it became the center of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, which Pope Paul III carved out of the Papal States and gave to his son Pier Luigi Farnese and which existed intermittently until 1860. In the 19th century Parma was a major center of the national liberation and unification movement in Italy, as well as of the workers’ movement. During a national antifascist strike in 1922, its workers entered into an armed struggle with fascists. The city was occupied by fascist German troops in 1943 and liberated by partisans in April 1945.

Parma’s historical buildings include a Romanesque cathedral (11th-12th century) and a Romanesque-Gothic baptistery (1196–1307, architects B. Antelami and others). Structures from the Renaissance include the churches of San Giovanni Evangelista (1494–1607, architects B. Zaccagni the Elder and S. Moschino) and Madonna della Steccata (begun in 1521, architects B. Zaccagni and G. Zaccagni) and the Palazzo della Pilotta (16th-17th century, architects G. Boscoli and others), which now houses the National Gallery and the National Museum of Antiquities. The baroque Farnese Theater (1618, architect G. Aleotti) is also in Parma.

REFERENCES

Aurea Parma. Parma, 1912—.
Corradi Cervi, M. Guida di Parma artistica. Parma, 1967.