Itineraries

This tour is designed for those who are visiting Casalmaggiore for the first time and wish to see the historical monuments of the city center. It revolves around the two main squares of the city, starting in the heart of the town in Piazza Garibaldi. Located in this square is the former church of Santa Croce, which houses the Museum of Bijou, and just close to the square you can find the magnificent neo-Gothic Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall), built in the nineteenth century and symbol of Casalmaggiore. Continuing to the nearby Piazza Marini you can visit the majestic Duomo di Santo Stefano, which houses an important collection of paintings, and you can muse over the octagonal Monastero di Santa Chiara.

This tour is designed for tourists who wish to deepen their knowledge of the city by visiting the town’s treasures. A real jewel of the area is the Teatro Municipale, an elegant example of an 18th C. Italian theater, built between 1782 and 1783, but later restored and reopened to the public in 1989. The Shrine of Our Lady of the Fountain is another of the town’s gems. Built on the site of a fresh water spring where a miracle is said to have occurred, this beautiful chapel is a short distance from the town center, along the road that leads to Sabbioneta. This same shrine holds the tombstone of the painter Francesco Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, who died in Casalmaggiore in 1540. The former residence of another famous painter, Giuseppe Diotti (1779-1846), now hosts the Diotti Museum. The museum’s collections illustrate the local artistic production from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. A separate section of the Diotti Museum is represented by the collections of the "Bottoli" School of Design, an ancient school of arts and crafts housed in the Renaissance style “Palazzo Martinelli”. The Torre Estense, located on the banks of the Po River just a short distance from the town center, and is all that remains of the town’s ancient defence walls. The tower itself was home to the local garrison who defended the town’s river entrance.