Madonna dei Prati is located 2 kilometres to the north of Roncole. This majestic building, characterized by a central ground plan with apse, was built between 1690 and 1695-1696 by the architect Don Francesco Callegari to preserve a miraculous frescoed image of the Virgin Mary, located in a small chapel in Prati della Colombarola since the 15th century. The outside and the façade were never completed. In the chapel to the right there is a beautiful carved frame from the end of the 1600s containing a contemporary Holy Family and Saints, a copy of a painting by Girolamo Bedoli of Parma housed in the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. Other monumental frames from the same period are to be found in the chapel to the left containing the painting with God the Father and the Holy Family, dating back to the early 17th century and attributed to the painter Pasquale Ottino of Verona), and in the apse. The latter is probably the work of Giovanni Setti, who was active in Piacenza under the Farnese family. The sanctuary is a traditional destination for pilgrimages, even from the nearby dioceses of Cremona, Parma and Piacenza. Giuseppe Verdi also attended this church for two reasons: visits to his paternal grandmother in the village, and to learn the rudiments of music from Don Paolo Costa in an upstairs room of the rectory. The sanctuary is also linked to Verdi’s name because of the terrible disaster that took place on 14th September 1828. It is narrated that some time before, Verdi, who was serving Mass in Roncole as altar boy, allowed himself to become enraptured by the melody of the organ. The celebrant, Don Jacopo Masini, who wanted to bring the boy back to attention, gave Verdi a kick that made him tumble to the foot of the altar. Boldly, the future musician called out a curse, “Ch’at vena na saieta!” (May you be struck by lightning). That 14th September, the feast of the Name of Mary, a bolt of lightning entered the sanctuary, striking and killing four priests, including Don Masini, and two young choir boys, one of whom was Verdi’s cousin. Fate dictated that he, stuck in a nearby house because of the furious storm, would never reach Madonna Prati where he was supposed to accompany Vespers on the harmonium. The disaster caused him a sense of guilt and terror because of his curse and must have left a deep impression on the people of the village since an anonymous engraver left a naive but amusing illustration (1828).
OPEN EVERY DAY 9.00 – 12.00. Free entry
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This is where Giuseppe Verdi was baptized and where he practised playing the organ in his early childhood under the guidance of his first teacher, Pietro Baistrocchi. The organ, built in 1797 by Ferdinando Bossi of Bergamo, was restored in 1900 and again in 1964. The church dates back to the early middle ages, although what we see today is the appearance it was given in the 16th and 17th centuries. Preserved inside the church are numerous frescoes depicting devotional images from the beginning of the 16th century, two paintings with St. Michael the Archangel and the Virgin and Saints by Pietro Balestra of Busseto, and a stupendous archaic wooden statue of the Dead Christ. Both interesting and unusual, although visible only during the Holy Week when it is lifted above the main altar, is a large 19th century painting with a scene of Calvary, a work of art by the scenographer Girolamo Magnani of Fidenza. In the first chapel to the right is the font where Giuseppe Verdi was baptised. Other Verdi relics are visible in the small room located below the organ. At the base of the bell tower a plaque commemorates the year 1814 when Luigia Uttini sought refuge there with her baby Giuseppe to escape the Russian and Austrian troops in the turbulent period immediately following Napoleon’s defeat.
The Neoclassical Oratory of Santa Maria Annunziata – Piazza S. Maria, where on 31st January 1805 Verdi’s parents married, preserves an Annunciation by Vincenzo Campi (1581). Its also contains an ancient sculpture of Christ in leather, which legend says was brought by a flooding of the river Po. In his youth, Verdi composed four “Nocturnes” – now lost – for the Good Friday procession during which, even to this day, the statue solemnly passes through the main street of the village.
Built in Neoclassical style by the architect-painter from Busseto Giuseppe Cavalli, who also decorated the main hall. Verdi bought this in the early days of the fortune he had accrued, in 1845, and lived here from 1849 to 1851 with Giuseppina Strepponi, generating scandal among the conformists and temporarily breaking relations with Antonio Barezzi for a free life, to devote to relationships and the children that Giuseppina had had in her youth. It was here that the Maestro composed the operas Luisa Milier, Stiffelio and Rigoletto. In January 1867, his father Carlo Verdi was to die here.
This Gothic church and the annexed Franciscan monastery sit in the south-western outskirts of the town, where they were built between 1470 and 1474 by Pallavicino and Gianludovico Pallavicino, children of Orlando il Magnifico. Inside the church, in a niche covered in rock concretions is a Mourning over the Dead Christ by Guido Mazzoni (1476-77), a masterpiece of 15th century Emilian sculpture. There are eight life-size polychrome terracotta figures. The faces on two of the statues bear a strong resemblance to the people who commissioned the Mourning and have been rendered with extraordinary psychological introspection and emotional intensity. Recent restoration work (financed by the Ministry of Culture) has further enhanced this feature. Giuseppe Verdi attended this church from when he was a child, and on 6th January 1836, in the tense atmosphere of the controversy surrounding the contest for Collegiate chapel-master, he gave a keenly-attended organ concert. We can therefore imagine how Verdi must have internalized the silent pain and restrained theatricality of the group of statues only to have them resurface in the musical production of his adulthood. The detached fresco of Christ Fallen under the Cross by Nicolò dell’Abate (ca. 1543-44) and the painting with the Madonna and Franciscan Saints (ca. 1580) by Antonio Campi also deserve mention.
Pietro Pettorelli, from Busseto, who in 1617 founded the college of the Jesuits, arranged to have it enlarged and have a church built, which was finished in 1862. The façade is coordinated with that of the college, in the Doric order, but tainted by the Baroque taste of the time. It is entirely covered by porticoes and given rhythm by the pilasters, while a cornice horizontally divides the prospectus, which features rectangular windows alternating with pilasters on the first floor. The top of the Church develops on a set-back plane while a circular broken drum acts as its façade. The interior, in Baroque style, has a single nave with three chapels on each side and was entirely stuccoed and painted by Domenico Dossã and Bernardo Barca. The frescoes attributed to Giovanni Evangelista Draghi depict the glory of the Saints Ignatius, Luigi Gonzaga, Francis Xavier and Francesco Borgia. By the same artist are six oil paintings on canvas in stucco frames, which loom over the statues of some Jesuit saints, and contain episodes from the life of the Order’s founder: the conversion of S. Ignatius in the castle of Loyola, the holy penitent in Monserrato, his ascetic life at Manresa, his trip to the Holy Land, his apostleship and his miracles. Four of the side chapels are frescoed in trompe l’oeil, conceivably by Giuseppe Natali, while the wooden altarpieces are by the hand of Vincenzo Biazzi. Among the other paintings, in part preserved in the collegiate church of San Bartolomeo, San Giovanni Francesco de’ Regis by Clemente Ruta, The Arrival of St. Francis Xavier in the Indies by Giovanni Evangelista Draghi. The altar-piece represents The Glory of St. Ignatius by Pier Ilario Spolverini, copied by Giacinto Brandi and surrounded by a simulated Rococo ancon. The Jesuits were expelled from the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza by Ferdinand of Bourbon, by decree of 3rd February 1768, validated by Pope Clement XIV with a papal bull of 21st July 1773. The college was then used as a hospital and also housed the public schools attended by Giuseppe Verdi.
Built between 1679 and 1682 by Antonio Rusca, to a project by Domenico Valmagini, architect of Ranuccio II Farnese, this is an important example of Farnese architecture from the Baroque period. The façade is characterized by large arcades on the ground floor, provided with benches in carved marble, in whose lunettes were two frescoes by Angelo Massarotti of The Deposition From The Cross and The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew (1682), detached and stored inside, and now replaced by two graffiti. The stuccoed first floor features ornate, elegant frames that surround the windows with alternating arched and triangular gables. The Monte di Pietà was founded by the Franciscans and the Pallavicino family in 1537 and performed charitable deeds and acts of welfare, as well as being involved in the donation of scholarships, the running of the School of Music and the management of the rich library. Giuseppe Verdi himself attended the school, and later made use of a grant from it that enabled him to study in Milan with Maestro Vincenzo Lavigna between 1832 and 1836. In 1960, the Monte di Pietà was merged with the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma bank, while since 2000 the Palazzo and its library have been the property of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Parma and Monte di Credito su Pegno of Busseto which generously continues to observe its original purposes.
Next to the Collegiate Church is the Oratory of the Holy Trinity, where on 4th May 1836 the wedding of Giuseppe Verdi to Margherita Barezzi was celebrated. The carved door, dating back to 1794, is attributed to Francesco Galli. The interior is decorated with lovely eighteenth century stuccoes and houses a splendid altar in polychrome marble (1749). Behind the altar is a bas-relief with the figure and crest of the blessed Rolando de’ Medici (1464). The apse contains Vincenzo Campi’s masterpiece of the Holy Trinity with the Saints Apollonius and Lucy) (1579).
Rebuilt in 1437 by order of Orlando Pallavicino the Magnificent, its façade is adorned with valuable terracotta decorations in the Lombard taste, typical of the 15th century buildings of Busseto and most likely produced in the workshop of Jacopo de’ Stavolis in Polesine (ca. 1480-90) and based on Rainaldo’s models. The interior of the church, which was lined with Rocaille stuccoes in the mid 1700s after the manner of Fortunato Rusca and Carlo Bossi, houses important 16th, 17th and 18th century paintings including fifteen tondos with the Mysteries of the Rosary by Vincenzo Campi (ca. 1576-1581) and frescoes with the imposing figures of the Doctors of the Church by Michelangelo Anselmi (1538-39). The main altar with figures and carvings in imitation gilded bronze by Giovanbattista Febbrari of Cremona (mid 1700s) and the neoclassical choir (1800-1805) are remarkable. Although at the present time it is not open to the public, the Collegiate Treasure collection is exceptional. It includes sumptuous vestments, decorated hymn books from the end of the 1400s, a small carved ivory triptych, ascribed to the early 1400s and attributed to the Embriachi workshop, and splendid silverware. The gold-plated silver processional cross, fashioned in 1524 by the goldsmiths Jacopo Filippo and Damiano Da Gonzate of Parma, is of great importance. Ferdinando Provesi was Collegiate chapel-master and organist from 1820 to 1833. At Provesi’s death, the twenty-year-old Giuseppe Verdi interrupted his studies in Milan to come to Busseto eager to succeed his old music teacher. However, Giovanni Ferrari of Guastalla was appointed, without a contest, over Verdi, and as a sign of protest the members of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto, lead by Antonio Barezzi, refused to participate in the sacred functions and the village became divided into two factions: for and against Verdi.