Cortemaggiore ( Piacentino: ) is an Italian ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' located in the

Province of Piacenza The province of Piacenza ( it, provincia di Piacenza) is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Piacenza. As of 2016, it has a total population of 286,572 inhabitants over an area of , giving it a popu ...

. Cortemaggiore is located in the northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

about from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, in the

Pianura Padana The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain ( it, Pianura Padana , or ''Val Padana'') is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetic ex ...

. The municipality borders with

Fiorenzuola d'Arda Fiorenzuola d'Arda (; egl, label= Piacentino, Fiurinsöla, or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy in the province of Piacenza, part of the Emilia-Romagna region. Its name derives from ''Florentia'' ("prosperous" in Latin). The "d'Arda" portion ...

, Villanova sull'Arda, Besenzone,

San Pietro in Cerro San Pietro in Cerro (Emilian language#Dialects, Piacentino: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Piacenza in the Italy, Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about east of Piacenza. As of 31 December ...

, Caorso,

Pontenure Pontenure ( egl, label= Piacentino, Pontnür ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about southeast of Piacenza. Pontenure borders the following ...

and

Cadeo Cadeo ( Piacentino: or ) is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about southeast of Piacenza. It has about 5,600 inhabitants. The name is d ...

. The town was founded in the 1479 by the

Pallavicino The House of Pallavicini, also known as Pallavicino and formerly known as Pelavicino, is an ancient Italian noble family founded by Oberto II ''Pelavicino'' of the Frankish Obertenghi family. The Pallavicini of Genoa The first recorded member of ...

family, over an old Roman habitation, which had been the capital of the ancient Stato Pallavicino. In 1949 the Italian entrepreneur

Enrico Mattei Enrico Mattei (; 29 April 1906 – 27 October 1962) was an Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian petroleum agency Agip, a state enterprise established by the Fascist regime. ...

discovers in Cortemaggiore's subsoil an important oilfield; with this oil was product a gasoline (the only one refined from Italian oil) called Supercortemaggiore. The municipality's motto is "Nihil sanctius quam recta fides cum sororibus associata" (Nothing is holier than a true faith combined with other virtues).

Architecture

Among the religious edifices in the town are the following: * '' Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie'' or ''Collegiata'', was once the cathedral of the town, and is still the main church of Cortemaggiore, built in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. The interior conserves a valued polyptych, composed by twelve pieces, by

Filippo Mazzola Filippo Mazzola (1460 - 1505) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period. He was born in Parma, his father was Bartholomew, and he became a pupil of Francesco Tacconi. He worked mainly in the area between Parma and Piacenza. There is docume ...

, the father of

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, B ...

. *''San Giovanni'': church built in 1625-1630 and frescoed by

Robert de Longe Robert de Longe (Brussels, 1646 – Piacenza, 1709) was a painter born in present-day Belgium, but active in Northern Italy including Cremona and Piacenza. Biography He is one of many painters known in Italy as ''il Fiammingo'' (the Flemish). De ...

in 1705 *''Annunziata'' (Church of the Annunciation): built in 1487, it houses two works by

Il Pordenone Pordenone, Il Pordenone in Italian, is the byname of Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis (c. 1484 – 14 January 1539), an Italian Mannerist painter, loosely of the Venetian school. Vasari, his main biographer, wrongly identifies him as Giovann ...

, an ''Immaculate Conception'' and a ''Deposition from the Cross''. Next to the church, there is a monastery with a cloister of 40 metres on all sides. *''San Giuseppe'' built 1576-1593 by the brotherhood of San Giuseppe, and subsequently decorated by stuccoes by Bernardo Barca and Domenico Dossi in 1697-1701 *''Oratory of San Lorenzo'': built in 1666. *''Oratory of San Giovanni'': started in 1625 by the confraternity of ''SS Sacramento''. *''Santa Maria delle Grazie fuori le mura'' or ''Madonnina'': built by the priest Anotonio Bovarini in 1661.

Notable people born in Cortemaggiore

Ranuccio II Farnese Ranuccio II Farnese (17 September 1630 – 11 December 1694) was the sixth Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1646 until his death nearly 50 years later and Duke of Castro from 1646 until 1649. Biography Birth and Succession Ranuccio was the elde ...

(1630–94), Duke of

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

and

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

* Lorenzo Respighi (1824–89), mathematician, philosopher *

Giuseppe Manfredi Giuseppe Manfredi (17 March 1828–11 June 1918) was an Italian professor, jurist, and politician. He was president of the Italian Senate in the early 20th century. Among his honors, he was made Supreme Knight of the Order of the Holy Annunciat ...

(1828–1918), patriot and President of the Italian Senate from 1908 to 1918, during the years of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Franco Fabrizi Franco Fabrizi (; 15 February 1916 – 18 October 1995) was an Italian actor. Life and career Son of a barber and a cinema cashier, Franco Fabrizi started his career as a model and an actor in fotoromanzi. Fabrizi also starred on several revu ...

(1926–95), actor

Image gallery

Image:Frati.JPG, The façade of the Church "dell'Annunziata". File:Deposizione di Cristo, Il Pordenone.jpg, "The Deposition", by

. File:Pordenone, Disputa sull'immacolata concezione.jpg, "The Blameless Conception", by Pordenone. Image:Particolare_pallavicino.JPG, A view of the Pallavicino's private chapel in the church "dell'Annunziata". File:Chiostro annesso alla chiesa dei frati, Cortemaggiore.jpg, The beautiful cloister of the church "dell'Annunziata". Image:Madonnina_corte.JPG, The church "Santa Maria delle Grazie fuori la mura" or "Madonnina". File:San Giovanni, Cortemaggiore.jpg, The oratory of "San Giovanni" (St. John). File:San Giuseppe, Cortemaggiore (1).jpg, The church of "San Giuseppe" (St. Joseph). File:Chiesa di San Lorenzo a Cortemaggiore.JPG, The Oratory of "San Lorenzo" (St. Lawrence). Image:Vista_corte.JPG, A view of Cortemaggiore's downtown. 1479 establishments in Europe 15th-century establishments in Italy {{EmiliaRomagna-geo-stub