Half-day minivan tour - 10am/2.30pm - wed-Sun

Minitour to Sala Baganza with a visit to the Rock and exclusively to the private part: the Hall of the Apotheosis. Private pavilion of the apartment of Duke Antonio Farnese. At the end a taste of salesi flavors.

Hall of the Apotheosis.

Private pavilion of the apartment of Duke Antonio Farnese.

The Hall of the Apotheosis, mentioned in ancient documents as the Hall of The Audience, has been frescoed by the internationally renowned painter Sebastiano Galeotti: the pictorial cycle, with a profane subject, constitutes one of the largest and most important enterprises realized by the artist.

From 1720 Sebastiano Galeotti (Florence 1675-Mondovì 1741), itinerant frescoe, is in Piacenza and then in Parma at the service of the Real Court: the artist from 1723 to 1727 is engaged by Duke Antonio Farnese to the decoration of the new salesi apartments. The Duke Of Antonio has elected Sala Baganza to the home of delights that he prefers to other ducal residences for the sweetness of the climate and the great reserves of hunting.

Galeotti's lavish, frivolous and mundane language of great yeast and clarity was at that time the most suitable to interpret the taste of enlightened despotism and to illustrate the splendour of aristocratic houses.

The Hall of the Apotheosis unfolds, in an atmosphere of celebratory and moralizing intentions, an olympus of mythological figures such as allegories of vices, virtues and merits necessary for a good ruler and, through these, the consequent achievement of fame and immortality, that is, of the apotheosis understood as well-being, glory and prosperity even of his state.

In the most excellent Baroque style, in a wonderful visual and narrative unit flows on the ceiling and walls of the bright interior a happy and unforgettable fairy tale: all the gods seem to have been summoned to protect and glorify the house.

While at the top of the vault History, swamped with white, writes forever in Latin in his book: "The Farnesian virtue seems to have neither similar nor followed." (Virtus farnesiana nec similem, visa est, nic habere sequentem).

Since 2006 the house is owned by the Merusi family, which, after a careful restoration lasting 3 years, has restored the hall to its former glory.

Art & Food.  The current project, involving the seventh generation "Merusi", Alessandro Alice and Anna, is to unify the excellence of local products and the enhancement of the historic complex of the Rocca San Vitale of Sala Baganza.

 

Meeting: Departure at 10am and 2.30pm from Parma Point in a minivan with a maximum of 7 people. Return at 1 and 6 p.m.

Validity: all year round.

Participation fee: 69.00 euros.

Guaranteed departure minimum two people.

The fee includes: shuttle, guided tours and entrances to the Rock of Sala Baganza, the Hall of the Apotheosis, tasting Merusi products 1876.