Guastalla ( Guastallese: ) is a town and ''

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 ...

'' in the

province of Reggio Emilia The Province of Reggio Emilia ( it, Provincia di Reggio nell'Emilia, Emilian: ''pruvînsa ed Rèz'') is one of the nine provinces of the Italian Region of Emilia-Romagna. The capital city, which is the most densely populated comune in the provin ...

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

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 re ...

Geography

Guastalla is situated in the

Po Valley 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 ...

, and lies on the banks of the

Po River The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ligurian language (ancient), Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira (river), Mair ...

. Guastalla is located at around from the cities of

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

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

, and

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

History

The area of Guastalla was probably settled by

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

s as early as the 7th century BCE, but the name of the city is mentioned for the first time in 864 CE. Of Lombard origin, the city was ruled by the

Torelli Torelli may refer to: People * Achille Torelli (1841–1922), Italian playwright *Alec Torelli (born 1987), American professional poker player *Bernard Torelli (1955–2016), French guitarist and audio engineer *Cesare Torelli (died 1615), Italian ...

family from 1406 to 1539, when it became the capital of a duchy under the Gonzaga family and housed artists like

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vig ...

and

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

. In 1748, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the city became part of the

Duchy of Parma, Piacenza e Guastalla The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Ducato di Parma e Piacenza, la, Ducatus Parmae et Placentiae), was an Italian state created in 1545 and located in northern Italy, in the current region of Emilia-Romagna. Originally a realm of the House of ...

, to which it belonged until 1847, when it was inherited by the

Duke of Modena Emperor Frederick III conferred Borso d'Este, Lord of Ferrara, with the Duchy of Modena and Reggio in 1452, while Pope Paul II formally elevated him in 1471 as Duke of Ferrara, over which the family had in fact long presided. This latter territo ...

. Since the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...

in 1861 Guastalla has been a part of Italy.

Industry

SMEG (from Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla), a major manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances, was founded by Vittorio Bertazzoni in Guastalla in 1948, where it still has its headquarters.

Main sights

Guastalla town: *The Cathedral (16th century) by

Francesco da Volterra Francesco da Volterra (, ) was an Italian painter. He resided in Pisa from 1370 to 1372, where, from the records of the Campo Santo, he painted the ''History of Job'' on the south wall. Like the rest of the earlier pictures in the Campo Santo ...

. *The

Ducal Palace of Guastalla The Ducal Palace of Guastalla (''Palazzo Ducale di Guastalla'' or ''Palazzo Gonzaga di Guastalla'') is an urban Renaissance-style palace in the town of Guastalla, a municipality in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It was bui ...

(1567). *The Civic Theatre Ruggero Ruggeri (1671). *The Town Hall. *The octagonal Oratory of ''Madonna della Concezione''. *The church of ''Santa Maria dei Servi'', designed by Francesco da Volterra. Noteworthy in the interior is a ''Deposition'', canvas by

Giuseppe Maria Crespi Giuseppe Maria Crespi (March 14, 1665 – July 16, 1747), nicknamed Lo Spagnuolo ("The Spaniard"), was an Italian late Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. His eclectic output includes religious paintings and portraits, but he is now most ...

. *The Civic Tower (18th century), in the location where once was the Spanish Castle Around Guastalla: *The Romanesque Oratory of St. George (probably from the 9th century). *The Basilica of St. Peter at Pieve di Guastalla, which was seat of two Roman Catholic councils. It houses an ancient baptismal font (9th century) and painted

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

portraying the ''Madonna with Child'', attributed to Guido Mazzoni.

Twin Towns

Forcalquier Forcalquier (; oc, Forcauquier, ) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France. Forcalquier is located between the Lure and Luberon mountain ranges, about south of Sisteron and west of the Durance river. D ...

, France *

Giovinazzo Giovinazzo ( Barese: ) is a town, '' comune'' (municipality) and former bishopric within the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia region, southeastern Italy. History It was a small fortified centre of the Romans, who called it Natolium, maybe bui ...

, Italy *

Gabicce Mare Gabicce Mare, also named Gabicce (Romagnol dialect, Romagnol: ''Gabéc''), is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, in Italy, region Marche. It is located about northwest of Ancona, north of Pesaro, and is close ...

, Italy

Residents

In-Grid Ingrid Alberini (born 11 September 1978), known by her stage name In-Grid, is an Italian dancer and singer-songwriter. Her 2003 club song "Tu es foutu", (English title: "You Promised Me"), charted in several European countries, Australia, Latin A ...

, Italian pop-dance artist

References

Cities and towns in Emilia-Romagna Populated places established in the 7th century BC {{EmiliaRomagna-geo-stub