SHARRYLAND
The Sanvitale fortress of Fontanellato and its treasures
Beautiful castle with splendid frescoes and many cuiosities, in a delightful medieval village
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What is Rocca Sanvitale and where is it?
The Sanvitale fortress, with its four towers, three cylindrical and one square, and moat still filled with water, dominates the square of Fontanellato, an Emilian village that grew up around the fortress itself. After admiring the exterior, it's time to visit the interior of the castle: a museum of art and curiosities. Notable gems include the Dining Room, which celebrates the Sanvitale family with the coats of arms of all the other families they were related to framed by lush foliage (a fine collection of dishes can be admired here); the Music Room with an 18th-century painted harpsichord; and a perfectly preserved 17th-century bedroom with coffered ceiling.
Why it's special: the Diana and Actaeon Room.
The real jewel, Mannerist, is the bathing room frescoed by Parmigianino. It is located on the first floor, among the service rooms. Here the artist paints, with his trademark gentleness, the myth of Diana and Actaeon, narrated by Ovid. The goddess, caught by the hunter Actaeon while bathing at a spring in the woods, in revenge turns him into a stag. Her dogs, not recognizing him, maul him. On one wall appears a lady holding an ear of corn, the goddess Ceres . In the lunettes we see the delightful putti typical of the painter, but two in particular look like portraits: a little girl with a sly look and an infant with a necklace of garnet grains alluding to death. In the family history there is a child who died prematurely; he is the son of Paola Gonzaga. She would therefore be the lady portrayed impersonating Ceres, and the ear of corn would be a wish for new fertility.
Not to be missed: the children's theater.
Other notable rooms follow; those with children should not miss the Sala del Teatrino, where a beautiful dismountable puppet theater, made between 1820 and 1825, 24 puppets with their original outfits and 6 tempera sets are preserved.
Curiosity: the hidden optical chamber that surprised even Luigi Ghirri
The last surprise of the fortress is a real optical chamber, the only one still working in Italy, built in the 19th century in one of the cylindrical towers. The camera ottica was an instrument already in use among painters in the seventeenth century, but by the nineteenth century it had become widespread with photography. Natural light penetrates the room and projects, through a play of mirrors, the image of the square upside down onto a curved surface. In this way the owner, unseen, could control everything that took place in the village. The great photographer Luigi Ghirri wrote of this one , who was greatly impressed: "As if, miniaturized, we could magically enter a camera... this primordial photo-camera repeats at sunrise this miracle: to observe in the image how the light that gradually spreads over the square draws the contours, lights the colors, things, people up to the clouds in the sky just behind the houses of Fontanellato."
A bit of history
The fortress dates back to the 12th century; in the 14th century it became the property of the Sanvitale family, which transformed it into a noble residence and in which it resided until 1948 when it was ceded to the Municipality of Fontanellato. Parmigianino's frescoes are from 1524. A curiosity: the name of the village, Fontanellato, alludes to the resurgences in which the area is rich .
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