PIACENZA. – City and diocese, capital of the province of the same name. Of a population of 350,000 inhabitants, it has 348,000 Catholics. The diocese is divided into 42 vicariates with 354 parishes, of which 14 are in the city, 12 in the suburbs, and 78 in the province of Parma; it has 360 diocesan priests and 125 religious priests, and two seminaries; 10 male and 103 female religious communities (1948).
The foundation of the city of P. is generally assigned to the year 214 B.C. It lies in a broad and fertile plain, near the hills and on the left bank of the Po; Strabo, Tacitus, Plutarch, and others describe it as “one of the most celebrated cities in the region around the Po”; “an illustrious and flourishing city equal to any other in Italy,” “a pillar of extraordinary strength and wealth,” and, in the time of Octavian Augustus, the regional capital of the entire Cispadane territory. It is asserted that its earliest inhabitants were the Ligurians, at least on the right bank of the Po, and the Taurisci, while on the left bank there were the Insubres. The Veliati were Ligurians, as can be learned from the Trajanic Alimentary Tablet, now in the Museum of Parma; the Gauls and perhaps the Etruscans came later.
Following the establishment of a Latin colony in the first year of the Second Punic War, P. became an integral part of the Roman Republic, and subsequently a municipium, which Cicero called “a municipium singularly deserving of itself.” In 536, Hannibal and Sempronius fought near the Trebbia. In the division of Italy into provinces, P. became part of Emilia. During the Middle Ages it belonged to the Lombard Kingdom, and then to the Kingdom of Italy; it was governed as a commune and was ruled by the Pallavicini and the Landi-Scotti, until it passed under the dominion of the Visconti and the Sforza. In 1512 Julius II asserted the rights that some of his predecessors had exercised there. Paul III transferred the principality to Pier Luigi (1545–47) in order to prevent the Spaniards from ruling it; in 1556 Ottavio Farnese restored the rule of his house, which lasted until 1731, when the Bourbons succeeded II. After the Napoleonic upheaval, in 1816 it was assigned, together with Parma, to Maria Luigia, Napoleon’s widow.
The supposition that the Gospel was preached in P. by s. Apollinare, s. Barnaba, s. Nazario, or s. Siro is unsupported by reliable evidence; a martyr, s. Antonino, is mentioned by Vittorio of Rouen at the end of the 4th century and subsequently by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, and became confused with the Piacenza Anonymous (v.) of the 6th century. The first bishop whose existence is certain is that Sabino who took part in the Council of Aquileia in 381 and was venerated as a saint and thaumaturge (Lanzoni, II, p. 814 ff.). In 456 Recitnero compelled Avito, who had been acclaimed emperor in Gaul, to become bishop of P. After Ravenna became a metropolitan see, P. too was subject to it, at least from 580. One of its bishops, Giovanni Filagato, after the expulsion of Gregory V, was made pope by Giovanni Crescenzo under the name of Giovanni XVI (April 997–February 998). Removed from Ravenna’s jurisdiction by Paschal II in 1106, P. was subsequently placed under Bologna by Gregory XIII in 1582; but Sixtus V restored its privilege. When in 1805 Napoleon declared Genoa the capital of the 28th Military Division and placed the Duchies of P., Parma, and Guastalla under it, he obtained from Pius VII in 1806 that those dioceses be made subject to the Metropolitan See of Genoa. Later, however, after the Duchy of Parma had been reconstituted, the duchess Maria Luigia obtained from Pius VII, by a bull dated 29 March 1818, that the diocese of P. be subject immediately to the Holy See, as it remains to this day.
CHURCHES AND ABBEYS. — In the territory there were the Benedictine abbeys of Mezzano Scotti and Val di Tolla, of which nothing remains; since 1937 the title of the latter has been attributed to the bishop pro tempore. The third, that of Chiaravalle della Colomba, founded in the 13th century by the Cistercians, with an admirable church and cloister, was reoccupied in 1937 by the Cistercians of Casamari.
Among the most important churches are recalled: for antiquity, S. Vittore ed Antonino, a basilica built toward the end of the 4th century, rebuilt in the 9th and reconstructed in the 11th century. It was formerly the first Cathedral, outside the city walls, and remained so until 859, when the new one within the walls was completed and dedicated to the martyr s. Giustina. It had the form of a Greek cross, radically modified again in the 16th century; in 1350 maestro Pietro Vago added the beautiful atrium before the door of the Basilica. A large octagonal tiburium has stood ab antiquo at its center, 40 m. high, with three tiers of bifora windows; beneath it, on 20 April 1183, the delegates of the Lombard cities gathered to lay the foundations of the peace concluded at Constance: the famous Carroccio was kept there. There are paintings by Molinaretto, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, and Nuvoloni; the vault of the Sanctuary was painted by Camillo Gavasetti, and on the side walls are large canvases by Roberto da Longe depicting episodes from the martyrdom of s. Antonino; in the chapel of the Sacrament there is a Last Supper by Bernardo Castelli, and in another a S. Opilio by Bernardo Ferrari piacentino. The Archive is important for its papers and documents relating not only to the Church but also to the history of Piacenza: several illuminated choir books are noteworthy, including two splendid ones from the 15th century, works of prete Giorgio di Muzano and prete Taddeo.
After the old Cathedral collapsed in the earthquake of 1117, the present majestic cathedral was begun in 1122 by Bishop Aldo da Rivergaro, in the form of a Latin cross and with three naves, 72 m. long, more than 61 m. wide, with a dome 38 m. high and a 70-m. spired bell tower. The crypt remained dedicated to s. Giustina, while the upper church was dedicated to the B. Vergine Assunta. In 1608 the painters Procaccini and L. Carracci completed the painting of the choir and the Sanctuary; in 1627 Guercino da Cento completed the painting of the dome, a work begun by Mazzucchelli, known as il Morazzone; from the gallery of the dome downward it was completed by the Bolognese painters Franceschini and Quaini. The painter Gaspare Landi produced the Deposition of Mary and The Empty Tomb, large canvases on the walls of the choir. Other large paintings by Carracci and Procaccini, removed to reopen the matronea on the occasion of the general restoration promoted in 1900 by Bishop mons. G. B. Scalabrini, were placed in the hall of the Bishop’s Palace. The Cathedral possesses ancient codices, a large number of parchments, diplomas, privileges, and grants from kings and emperors.
Other churches: S. Francesco, beside Piazza Cavalli, is a grand Gothic church with three naves, the lateral ones joining behind the choir; it contains a chapel of the Conception frescoed by Malosso, the Multiplication of the Loaves by Benedetto Marini, and Bernardo Castelli’s painting of the Pietà. S. Savino, an ancient monastery of the Girolamini, is a three-naved church with a crypt, almost at the entrance to the city, built in 903 and rebuilt in the 15th century; it was recently restored. S. Sisto was founded in 874 by the Empress Angilberga: it has a Latin-cross plan with two domes; among its paintings are the Siroge degli Innocenti by Procaccini, the Martyrdom of s. Martino by Leandro da Ponte, the Martyrdom of s. Rabiano by Paolo Farinata, the S. Barbara by Jacopo Palma il Giovane, and the Martyrdom of s. Sisto and s. Lorenzo by Paolo Cavagna. The painting at the center of the choir, a highly esteemed work of inlay in its genre, depicts perspectives, castles, villas, and so forth. The church contains the magnificent mausoleum of Duchess Margherita d’Austria, wife of Ottavio Farnese, erected there in 1617; the monastic building, once among the most illustrious in Italy and now occupied by the Engineers Corps, still exists, and was home to highly distinguished men. The church of the S. Sepolcro dates from the 10th century; then, in 1655, a Benedictine monastery was attached to it, with a hospital established in commendam in 1484; the Olivetans subsequently took possession and in 1513 built the present temple, in the form of a Latin cross with three naves, attributed to Alessio Tramello, with graceful moldings by Bramante, who is also credited with a corridor and two large round-arched bifora windows above the portico. It contains paintings by Rubini, eremone Beduschi, Luca Cattapane, and the piacentino Ghittoni, and at one altar a Crucifix by Gabriele Gatti, known as il Soiario. In 1810 the monastery was suppressed, and the church was restored to worship in 1903. S. Maria di Campagna, also based on a design by Tramello, has a Greek-cross plan and was founded in 1522. It contains a S. Giorgio by Soiario, Stern’s Annunciation, a S. Francesco by Procaccini, a S. Agostino and a S. Caterina by Pordenone, and so forth. The bronze doors, decorated with arabesques and embroidery of excellent workmanship, are by the Milanese Eugenio Bellagio. In that area Pope Urban II convened the great Council of 1 March 1905. The church of S. Agostino, begun in 1570 by the Lateran Regular Canons, was suppressed together with the adjoining convent in 1798. Its entirely granite façade contains niches with colossal statues of bishops and angels at the summit of the pediment; the interior has a Latin-cross plan with five naves, the central one supported by 34 paired Doric granite columns. The monastery has been converted into barracks; the great fresco by Gian Paolo
Lomazzo that was in the refectory was completely destroyed by air raids. There is also the church formerly dedicated to s. Maria di Betlem of the Humiliati (1180), later granted to the Servites until 1788, dedicated to s. Anna, and subsequently belonging to the Carmelites; it is now a parish church.
The city boasts magnificent buildings: the Gothic Palazzo del Comune, a work of 1281; that of the governor, the Farnese, and many others belonging to noble families. There are three principal squares: the central one, called « dei Cavalli », after two colossal bronze statues representing the dukes Alessandro and Ranuccio I Farnese, the work of Francesco Mochi between 1620 and 1624; Piazza Cittadella, dominated by the magnificent Palazzo Farnese, founded by Margherita d’Austria, wife of Ottavio Farnese, in 1558; and Piazza del Duomo, where the majestic Cathedral is admired.
ILLUSTRIOUS MEN OF PIACENZA. - In painting, the following are remembered: Bartolino da P., who frescoed in the thirteenth century in the Baptistery of Parma; Giulio Mazzoni, a painter and sculptor praised by Vasari; Pier Antonio Avanzini, Felice Boselli, Gian Paolo Pannini; Carlo Maria Viganoni (1788) and Giacinto Rivoni, disciples of Giuseppe Ghirardi at the Gazzola Institute; Gaspare Landi (1756). Sculptors: Oberto and Pietro da P., for the doors cast in 1196 for S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome; Angelo Casalino, engraver of coins for pontiffs and princes, and his son Pompeo, for the Farnese mint; Angelo Spinazzi, a highly accomplished chaser of the eighteenth century. Woodcarvers: Antonio Burlengo, for the grandiose diptych panel of the Cathedral (1447); Guglielmo da Saliceto, a wonder of the Medici (of the thirteenth century); Giulio Casserio, a celebrated anatomist (sixteenth century); Domenico Ferrari, physician. In law, Gian Domenico Romagnosi, jurist; in literature, Pietro Giordani, Pietro Gioia, jurist and man of letters, and Melchiorre, philosopher and statesman.
For the politics of their times: Cardinal Pietro Diani and Cardinal Jacopo Pecoraria, a Cistercian; Cardinal Vincenzo Maculani, military architect and mathematician of Urban VIII, and Cardinal Giulio Alberoni; the Franciscan orator Cornelio Musso. The most illustrious of all was Tebaldo Visconti, Pope Gregory X, venerated as a blessed.
Among the historians: Musso, and the various Ripalta, Pier Maria Campi, Fr. Stanislao Perdetti, the provost Cristoforo Poggiali, Canon Vincenzo Boselli, the lawyer Antonio Domenico Rossi, Giuseppe Dal Verme, Leopoldo Cerri, etc. - Vedi tav. LXXXIV.