What is Fontanellato known for?

The 1524 fresco of Diana and Actaeon, painted in the Rocca Sanvitale when the artist was twenty, one of his earliest mature works. Thirteenth-century fortress with four corner towers and a moat still filled with water, accessible by drawbridge from the piazza. Largest bamboo labyrinth in the world, eight hectares, designed by Franco Maria Ricci and opened in 2015 at the frazione of Masone.

When is the best time to visit Fontanellato?

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct. April through June and September through October are the working months on the Parma plain. Spring brings green wheat fields around the Rocca and clear water in the moat; autumn dries the fields gold and brings the parmigiano and culatello shops back to their winter rhythm. July and August touch thirty-six degrees with high humidity, and the piazza empties between two and five. Po-valley fog sits over Fontanellato most mornings from November to February, with the Rocca rising out of it on cold days. The Sagra dell'Anolino in early September and the autumn truffle market are the events that fill the piazza. Mid-week stays in May and October give the Parmigianino fresco room without the queue.

Where is Fontanellato?

Fontanellato is a comune in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 22 kilometers from Parma.

How do I get to Fontanellato?

From Parma, Fontanellato is roughly 22 km by road.

Emilia-Romagna · Parma

Fontanellato

A Parma-plain town built around the Rocca Sanvitale, the moated fortress at its center.

Known for

PARMIGIANINO
The 1524 fresco of Diana and Actaeon, painted in the Rocca Sanvitale when the artist was twenty, one of his earliest mature works.
MOATED ROCCA
Thirteenth-century fortress with four corner towers and a moat still filled with water, accessible by drawbridge from the piazza.
MASONE LABYRINTH
Largest bamboo labyrinth in the world, eight hectares, designed by Franco Maria Ricci and opened in 2015 at the frazione of Masone.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Why come

Fontanellato sits on the Parma plain, twenty kilometers northwest of Parma toward Piacenza. The town carries Borghi più belli, Bandiera Arancione, and Cittaslow recognition. The fortress at its center faces the municipal palace and the porticoed square, so civic and seigneurial life still read as one composition around Piazza Matteotti.

Construction began in the thirteenth century and ran through the fifteenth, and the moat still draws from an old resurgence rather than a diverted river. Three kilometers north, at the frazione of Masone, the plain opens onto the labyrinth grounds, a rural extension of the same town rather than a separate destination. What holds the place together is continuity of ownership and use: a single family's seven centuries in the Rocca, a sanctuary built to mark an apparition on the town's edge, and a modern garden project sited deliberately in the same orbit. Fontanellato reads less as a collection of sights than as one plan, fortress, piazza, sanctuary and frazione, laid out across a small stretch of flat land.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Fontanellato’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Rocca Sanvitale
Square plan on Piazza Matteotti, three cylindrical towers and one square, the moat fed by an old resurgence. The Sanvitale family held the manor for seven hundred years, until Count Giovanni sold it to the municipality in 1948.
Saletta di Diana e Atteone
Small vaulted ground-floor room of the Rocca, commissioned by Galeazzo Sanvitale, with a central round mirror bearing the inscription respice finem.
Labirinto della Masone
Bamboo labyrinth designed by Franco Maria Ricci, with a star-shaped central plaza, three kilometers from the center at Masone.
Santuario della Beata Vergine del Santo Rosario
Sanctuary on the western edge of the centro, built from 1641 to mark a Marian apparition, with a venerated wooden image of the Madonna.
Piazza Matteotti
Central square ringed by the fortress, the municipal palace, and porticos lined with cafés and salumi shops.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Fontanellato fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Festival Assuntapatron saint's feast
usually held in August. TrovaSagre

Living here

Population 7,053
Commuter belti
Pharmacy: none mapped
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Bologna, 1 h 24 min drive
Regional capital Bologna, 1 h 28 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 45 m
Population: 7,053
Surface area: 53.98 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Parma

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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