parma – Page 3 – Postcards from Barton Springs

The soaring height of the Baptistery of Parma makes it a striking addition to the huge plaza fronting the Cathedral. The exterior of the Romanesque and Gothic structure is octagonal and is softly colored with bands of pink stone quarried from the area of Verona. A row of animals, some believable and some fanciful, add a whimsical touch to the structure’s surfaces.

The Baptistery was commissioned in 1196, with Benedetti Antelami generally receiving credit for both the architectural and much of the sculptural design. Restoration has revealed that his sculptures in the lunettes crowning the entrances were polychrome.

Inside, the hexagon is farther divided into 16 arches. Among the themes reflected by the rows of sculpture is the personification of the seasons of the year.

Antelami devoted more than two decades to working on the Baptistery, but it was not completed until after his death around the year 1230.

Completed in 1530, “The Assumption of the Virgin” rising high, higher up than this photo, up above in the cupola in the Cathedral in Parma attracts great attention. The Renaissance fresco is the work of Antonio da Correggio (1489-1534), the pride of Parma, aside from meat and cheese. But there is so much distracting art in this cathedral, we ended up only with this image capturing a portion of two of the bottom corners of the star of the show.

The massive façade of the cathedral appears awkwardly dwarfed by a single tower, but this certainly was not the original plan. Atop an early Christian crypt, construction began in 1059. Following its consecration, the cathedral served the people of Parma only a decade before many of its walls came tumbling down in an earthquake in 1117.

The “new” façade, completed in 1178, presumably has thicker walls. The single Gothic belfry was added a century later. The planned twin tower never arrived.