The “Prosciutto capital and golden gate to the river Parma valley” would appear to have come into existence in the heart of the Lago Orano (Orano Lake), which, once it had dried out became the site for human settlement and the place was originally called Lagorano and then Langhirano.

 

“Given that here there was a lake called Orano, which can still be seen as it is in a small plain with ruins on the former shore line, and when it dried out began to be inhabited and was called Anghirano and Langhirano.  This place is very famous for the great market held here every Monday, even though the city statutes say that is only to be held every fortnight, where you can find everything that you need to live and where many people come, not only from the mountains and from the territory around Parma but from the city itself” (Bonaventura Angeli, Historia della Città di Parma…., Parma, Erasmo Viotti, 1591, p.362).

 

Since time remote Langhirano had been “ the emporium of the mountain, the warehouse from which you served yourself directly, avoiding longer journeys to distant cities to which, because of feudal organisation, few people had today’s motives to go to”.

 

The discovery in 1973 on the left bank of the river Parma near the built up area of a  pre-historic stone (amygdala) worked on by an unknown inhabitant of the hills means that the area was inhabited at least 200.000 years ago.

Placed at the edge of the plain at the mouth of the river Parma valley, it became an important marketplace and stopover.  The local Town Hall (Palazzo Comunale) bears witness to the distant domination of the Bishops of Parma in the Middle Ages.

 

This building was built for the Bishop’s captain during the government of Bishop Grazia (1224-1236), but even earlier than 1116 the Canossa Benedictines had jurisdiction over the area: they were followed by the Ducal chamber, then Bishop Bernard (1186) and finally the Parma municipality.

In 1358 the then Bishop of Parma, Ugolino Rossi obtained the feudal holding and after various vicissitudes it passed to the Marquis Galeazzo Pallavicino and in 1600 Ranuccio II Farnese conceded it to the Garimberti family who held it until 1821.  Ownership of the Villa-Palace passed in 1832 to the lawyer Ottavio Ferrari (1789-1852) and on 4^th March 1889 it was sold for 17.000 lire to the Municipality of Langhirano who made it the Town Hall.

At the end of  Via Mazzini which is in front of the Town Hall can be seen the Church of the Annunciation, which used to be the Oratory of the Sacred Virgin of the Canal built in 11645 and completely rebuilt by Lamberto Cusani in the neo-baroque style between 1908 and 1913.  It became a parish church on 1^st October 1944 and has recently been amplified and restored.

 

Near Langhirano can be found Mattaleto, which used to be a fortified medieval hamlet, dominated in the XII century by the castle called “Matalitulo” which has now  disappeared, and the interesting Church of St. Michael which was built between 1715 and 1723 to the plans of the architect Francesco Boetti.  There is also the ancient Abbey of St. Michael Cavana, which is now in the municipality of Lesignani Bagni, built beyond the river Parma on the forested slopes of Monte Ripa in the XII century, and also, to be found on the provincial road for Parma, the great Torrechiara Castle.

 

Torrechiara, or more correctly “Torchiara” from the latin “torculum” because of the presence of vineyards which still today crown the slopes around the castle, reveals on the left bank of the river Parma the elegant outline of the castle, “high and happy rock fortress”, erected between 1448 and 1460 by Pier Maria Rossi on a pre-existing Roman and then Medieval fortress.  It is defended by three orders of walls, by four corner towers and by drawbridges.  To one side is the small yet characteristic hamlet where the Oratory of St. Laurence built by Rossi can be found, destroyed in 1314 and rebuilt in 1831 by Marino Torlonia.

At the foot of the hill is an ancient mill while along the provincial road is the quiet village nestled around the XVI century main square with the simple Oratory of St. Rocco built in 1579.
On the river bank can be found the Benedictine Abbey of Torrechiara gathered within the ancient walls built by Pier Maria Rossi in 1471 for his son Ugolino the first Abbot.  To one side of the simple yet reassuring cloisters of the Abbey can be found the typical places associated with Monastic life: the refectory, the Chapter house, the small church dedicated to St. Mary of the Snow, the XVIII century temple or neo-classic ‘belvedere’, the baroque decorations which look towards the orchards where you can hear the humming of the bees and glimpse the openings onto the river Parma.