The Citadel (La Cittadella)

La Cittadella is a military fortress in the shape of a pentagon with ramparts and moat. It was built towards the end of the XVI century by Alessandro Farnese, a great captain, governor of Flanders (1578-1592), third duke of Parma (1586). The Duke Alessandro once again took up the idea of his grandfather Pier Luigi, the first duke of Parma (1545-47), who in 1546 had already seized the area on which stood the gothic church and the convent of the Santissima Annunziata of Porta Nuova of the Minor Franciscan Friars, in order to build a military factory there. It took shape only some decades later.

The Citadel, personally designed by Alessandro Farnese, drew inspiration, till the smallest details, from the one in Antwerp designed by Francesco Paciotto. It was built by the ducal engineers Giovanni Antonio Stirpio de’Brunelli and Genesio Bresciano, with the collaboration of Smeraldo Smeraldi.

These days the area is used as a public park, and the pentagonal shape, the bastions and the entrance door to the city (1596), work of Simone Moschino, are the only ancient structures, which are preserved.