Corte di Giarola

History

The court was originally built between the 8th and 9th centuries by the order of Ingo, a nobleman; the building served as location for a fortified garrison on a nearby ford of a branch of River Taro. Because of its proximity to the watercourse, it was known by the name of Glarola, probably of Latin origin, in reference to the large amount of gravel deposited on the banks of the river.

The region's feudal lordship gave the building in 1034 AD to the monastery of San Paulo in Parma. The monastery turned it into an independent agricultural court, protected by walls and equipped with houses, stables, dairy and mill powered by the waters of the Naviglio canal; the wooded and swampy surrounding lands were reclaimed and cultivated.

In 1187, Pope Gregory VIII issued a papal bull confirming the rights to the court and to the Romanesque church dedicated to St Nicomede (Chiesa di San Nicomede) and the adjoining chapel as part of the administration of San Prospero di Collecchio church. To defend the building and the ford, the bishop of Parma also erected a defensive tower, as an extension of his defensive effort of the nearby castles of Collecchio, Segalara, Madregolo and Carona.

The structure was acquired by the Rossi but was largely destroyed by the Parmesans in 1308. From 1440 the fortified structures were almost completely demolished or converted into dwellings. According to the Catasto farnesiano of 1562, the court house, now dependent on the Parma magistrate inhabited 110 people, ran an area of 1140 Parmesan biolines (corresponding to approximately 342 hectares of land), largely belonging to the monastery of San Paulo; the cultivations extended particularly in the western plain, as the river Taro flowed far more westward at that time. …