Parma's Most Storied Theatre

Inaugurated in 1628, Parma's Teatro Farnese was the first modern theatre in the western world. Located inside the imposing Pilotta Palace, it is one of this beautiful, old city's most striking and storied gems. 

The theatre was commissioned by the Duke of Parma, Ranuccio I Farnese as a dazzling venue for shows celebrating ducal weddings and state visits and its painted wood and stucco framework was lavishly decorated with statues, frescoes, gilded medallions and classical capitals. It also featured a pioneering engineering system for mobile stage sets. 

However, as time went on, the theatre gradually fell out of use and by the time Charles Dickens visited Parma in 1844, he found it to be “a grand, old, gloomy theatre, mouldering away" and commented, "if ever ghosts act plays, they act them on this ghostly stage”. Two hundred years later, a World War II bomb delivered the coup de grâce.

Fortunately, in 1953 work began to restore this historic building. The paper statues, columns and painted Serlian arches had all crumbled away but, as the essential structure was faithfully re-built, the underlying fresco decorations which were thought to have been lost forever were discovered beneath a patina of dust and dirt. By 1965, the renovation was complete and the Teatro Farnese finally took its place once more as an integral part of Parma’s cultural heritage.

Today, the Teatro Farnese is a venue for concerts and special productions, including one of the operas of the annual Verdi Festival. It is also part of the Pilotta Museum Complex, home to the National Gallery of Parma, the historic library, Biblioteca Palatina and the Archaeological Museum.

Come and see this storied gem with us as part of our holiday to the Parma Verdi Festival 2026.