Un Antico Centro Di Trasformazione Agro-Alimentare
An ancient centre for processing agricultural food products
A brief history of the Giarola Court, its cheese plant and its preserves factory
The locality and the agricultural court
Giarola is on the right hand bank of the Taro river about half way between Fornovo and Pontetaro. The origins of the name can be quite easily guessed at, as the word Giarola means the small pebbles or gravel which formed the river bed
in either Roman times or the High Middle Ages. At the head of one of the many crossing points over the river, Giarola was on the ‘pedemontana’ or foothills road which from the valley of the Baganza river and Talignano led to Medesano, Noceto and Borgo San Donnino (today’s Fidenza). The locality, entirely in the plain, was between Oppiano to the south, the main road to the east, the river Scodogno to the north and the Taro river to the west. Around the XI century which is when we first have information about the settlement it became the property of the Convent of St. Paul in Parma and seat of a small monastic community where there was a Church, stables and cow byres, dwellings, a watermill and a cheese factory; in short, a rural ‘court’ which was auto-sufficient and protected by such strong walls that in certain documents it is referred to as a castle or castro. The watermill was powered by the waters of the Taro Naviglio canal which then, as now, had its incline slightly upstream first at Ozzano and then more towards the valley, towards the Church at Oppiano where there was another monastic settlement, this time belonging to the Benedictines of St. John the Evangelist in Parma, and, with a watermill and perhaps also a xenodoch or small hospice for pilgrims who were following the river to Fornovo in order to begin the Apennine tract of the Via Francigena or Romea Road traced by pilgrims over the centuries. The Taro Naviglio canal thus ran through Collecchiello and Vicofertile and carried water to Parma to the Gate of St Francis, today Bixio, and finished up in the lake in the DucalPark. The waters of the canal powered a number of watermills and ‘factories’ in the countryside and in the city including the Ducal factory of glass and majolica which passed to the Bormioli family half way through the XIX century.
So we can say that this whole area along the river bank, once certainly marshy and full of thick woods, by the end of the first millennium had been rendered usable and productive land. The cultivations were wheat, forage, vines and rice. The paddy fields, already present in the XVI century, were suppressed by Ducal order but re-established in the XIX as they were economically viable. Thy were finally abolished in 1874 as damaging to the public health. The castle had its own limited strategic importance as it was hotly contested at the beginning of the XIV century by the factions united around the most important Parmesan families. It gave hospitality to Duke Francesco Sforza on his way from the Piacenza area to Parma and he left part of his army camped here under the command of Francesco II Gonzaga who dated some of his letters from Giarola on the eve of the Taro Battle on 6th July 1495.
Giarola was part of the system of establishing castles on the territory. Just to mention those which were near the ‘corte’ other castles or fortified courts were to be found at Madregolo, Collecchio,Segalara, Carona, and, beyond the river Taro, at Noceto, most of them in the hands of the Rossi family[1]. The Church, instead, originally a simple chapel, though it was on the Via Francigena route, was not distinguished as a ‘pieve’ or parish church and depended on the church in Collecchio already in 1230. It certainly had the pleban shape with the triangular roof at the front, a semi-circular apse and small terracotta arches, some of which survived the restorations carried out over the centuries, in particular in the XVIII century, and the bombardments of the second World War. In the interior can be found, amongst others an Annunciation painted by a talented follower of Molosso, perhaps Francesco Lucchi (as suggested by Giuseppe Cirillo and Giovanni Godi) , from the XVII century in a later frame, a Holy Family with Saints Gioacchino and Anna of quite good quality from the second half of the XVIII century and an altar front of painted and worked leather from the same period[2].
In 1562, at the time of the first systematic land survey, known as the Farnesian ‘Catasto’, because it was ordered by the Farnese family, the new Dukes of Parma, the land surface covered by the Giarola court reached 1140 biolche or about 342 hectares, 1063 of which were owned by the St Paul Convent in Parma. There were 110 inhabitants, rising to 147 at the end of the century. Giarola remained directly dependent on the jurisdiction of the town and was never part of the feudal holding of Collecchio which was in the hands of the Dalla Rosa Prati family.
Today the Giarola court, like the nearby one at Oppiano, lies next to the Taro river, but in the past there used to be extensive cultivated areas between the court and the river as can be seen from XVII century maps which are in the State Archives[3], the land was probably swallowed up by successive flooding from the river, which has tended to move slowly eastwards inexorably corroding the right bank which had never been protected by embankments.
At the beginning of the XIX century there were just over 200 inhabitants, reaching 312 in 1855 only to fall to 255 in 1890.
The French set up the Mairies, or municipalities, and Giarola was originally under the city to become in 1806 a ‘fraction’ or small municipal area under the jurisdiction of Collecchio[4].
When in 1804 Captain Boccia visited the area during his well known journey to the mountains near Parma, he found the land around Giarola “extremely fertile”. The goods and chattels that the French confiscated from the Monastery were included in the so called Civil List and rented to entrepreneurs who left cultivation to agricultural workers. The first important landlords of Giarola were the brothers Camillo and Alessandro Zileri, nobles from Parma who, following the wealth of new ideas brought by the French did not hesitate to engage in hitherto bourgeois activities[5]. In the 1840’s the landlords were the literary figure Professor Michele Leoni from Borgo San Donino, who had a country house at Gaiano, and Professor Giovanni Rossi a surgeon and doctor originally from Sarzana working at the hospital in Parma.
Towards the end of the century the lands of Giarola were sold to the Montagna family, whose heirs still today own part. In particular Luigi (d.1913) and Giuseppe (1881-1923). The latter, together with his wife Clarice Figna (d.1947), had the attractive art nouveau style villa built which was designed by the architects Ennio Mora and Alfredo Provinciali[6]. With great attention to the technical teaching of the Itinerant Agricultural Professorship, the Montagna family gave a constantly up-dated slant to agricultural production, with an eye to the agricultural food processing industry and they were certainly amongst the first in Collecchio to cultivate tomatoes.
The factories of Cavalier Ercole Azzali and Giovanni Jenni
From a publicity card from the second decade of the XX century we learn that the company of cav. Ercole Azzali[7]had a factory at Vicopò on the road to Mantua, and in Parma at n.59 Via Trento.The company defined itself as “An industrial agricultural farm – tomato preserves”; it also produced and exported Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the “Super concentrated tomato sauce, Perla brand” whose graphics showed an open oyster shell with a gleaming pearl in the middle. A publicity poster from after the second World War is instead only for the Perla brand concentrated tomato sauce in the triple, double and gold triple format in tubes. The only factory mentioned is the one in Via Trento. On the back of the labels on the cans was printed the poem, probably written by Renzo Pezzani, called “One of the Labours of Hercules”, a humorous take on the name of the owner ‘Ercole’ (Hercules) Azzali[8].
Cav. Ercole Azzali (1870-1936) was president of the Farmers Association in 1919, counsellor to the Co-operative Bank of the Agrarian Associations[9]from 1917-1922 and of the Chamber of Commerce between 1914-1923[10];he was a member of the Provincial Council (representing the San Donato area) and the Provincial Deputation in 1922 under the Presidency of the hon. Giuseppe Micheli; he was also a counsellor of the Co-operative Agrarian Consortium[11]. He was amongst the first to join the Italian Popular Party[12]and he stood for Parliament at the elections of 1919 together with the hon. Micheli , the lawyer Tullio Maestri, the engineer Egidio Pecchioni and the agricultural worker Giuseppe Corradi, but was not elected[13]. Two of his letters from 18th and 22nd October 1919 about electoral matters are in the Micheli archives in the Palatine Library[14].
Giovanni Jenni, of Swiss origin and nationality (Berne 1887-Martorano, Parma 1963) after a number of experiences in his native land, came to Italy, first to Modena and then to Parma in 1916 where he set up an export agency for preserves and cheese, with a factory at Martorano. He became president of the group of preserve industrialists within the Industrial Union, where he was on the board between 1947 and 1963; he was a member of the Permanent Special Commission for the Industry at the Chamber of Commerce and vice-president of the Exhibition of Preserves[15]. During the second World War, the Swiss Consul General in Milan nominated Jenni as his delegate for the province of Parma, and his work was extremely useful in the sphere of family and business relations with residents of the warring nations[16]. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Parma from 1948 and until 1958 he gave numerous lectures on various economic matters[17]. The Jenni business also sold Parmesan cheese and natural butter and had its seat at no.27 Via Trento in Parma.
The tomato canning factory of Giarola was part of a system of small and medium sized industrial plants along the main State road to La Spezia, the railway line and the Taro river between Fornovo and Parma, which included that of Abele Bertozzi in Fornovo, the Carlo Erba and Rodolfo Mansueto plants in Ozzano Taro, Roberto Fainardi in Gaiano, Gino Bontempi in Oppiano, Tanzi, Magnani and Alessandrini to the south of Collecchio, Calisto Tanzi near the railway station in Collecchio and Ferrari and Figna (now Copador) in Collecchiello on the road to Madregolo, as well as a number of minor activities which sprang up but quickly disappeared in various periods[18]. At the present time the only active plants are those in Ozzano Taro and Collecchiello. Next to the tomato preserves plant of Giarola, which is outside the court to the north-east (practical for the indispensable water of the Naviglio Taro canal), there was also, within the court, the cheese factory with its pig breeding styes.
All the buildings together with the land around belonged, as we have already mentioned, to the Montagna family and so both the cheese factory and the tomato processing plant were rented to different managers from time to time[19].
The factory – from the beginning equipped with boules and modern machinery for the time – began functioning in 1907 as Lisoni, Maghenzani & C.[20]and continued as such until 1924; from then until 1929 it passed under the denomination of the Giovanni Jenni factory and its visual graphic brand was the Verdi Monument in Parma; from 1929 to 1945 the factory became a company between Jenni and Azzali (Giuseppe[21]) to then become Azzali Conserves from 1946 to the early 1960’s, when business ceased. After the war, polemically, Jenni – who was now producing in Martorano – placed yet again the visual graphic brand of the Verdi monument which had just been pulled down[22].
It is possible that at Giarola a cheese factory for the production of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese had functioned for a long time as it is documented in 1451 for the Convent of St. Paul[23]. In modern times we find it functioning under the name of Maghenzani Primo & Sons, at least from 1901 to 1922-25[24]and in the years 1926-1927 both as Maghenzani Primo and Company as well as Maghenzani Ciro and Sons[25]but it is possible that there were two cheese plants in the municipal area, only one of which was at Giarola. In 1924 in the farmer’s lists appears the name of Odoardo Azzali[26], confirmed in 1925[27]and in 1926-27[28].
In July 1934 the Interprovincial Voluntary Consortium of Typical Cheese was set up in Reggio Emilia and on the following 23rd October the members’ assembly elected cav. Ercole Azzali amongst the counsellors destined to represent the province of Parma in the Consortium[29].
In 1938 amongst the farmers we find the firm of Maghenzani Ciro and Brothers and amongst the producers of cheese that of Maghenzani Primo and Sons[30]
In the 1930’s Jenni enlarged and re-structured the factory and many skeletons were discovered during the course of the work; some historians suggest that these belong to soldiers who fell during the Battle of Fornovo, but this probably has no basis in fact[31].
The company of cav. Ercole Azzali (son of Giuseppe) was amongst the first to adhere to the newly set up Provincial Breeders Association in 1951 for his cowshed at Vicopò[32]. In 1953 the company, now called cav. Ercole Azzali and Sons had plants at Enzano of Sorbolo, Trecasali, Busseto and Giarola[33]. In 1957 the canning factory was definitively sold by the Montagna heirs to Giuseppe Azzali, while the cheese factory was still rented out [34]. In the same year the cheese factory of cav. Ercole Azzali was active [35]. The preserves factory in Giarola, as we have already mentioned, ceased to function in the early 1960’s.
Cav. Giuseppe Azzali was photographed in the 1950’s together with cav. Pietro Barilla, and a racing car driver and fan next to an Alfa Romeo Zagato 1750[36]. The Azzali company stopped tomato processing at Vicopò in 1976/7; the plant was ceded to the firm of cav. Primo Tanzi and it too closed in 1985[37].
In March 1970 the cheese factory of the cav. Ercole Azzali firm at Giarola was functioning and one of the cheese masters, Elvio Frigeri, was listed amongst the worthy prize winners of the Consortium for Parmigiano-Reggiano[38].
The Collecchio Communist Party in August 1971, during the course of a Union dispute, indicated amongst the agricultural concerns of the Municipality also the “Azzali Preserves Industry”[39].
First the factory, then the cheese factory, and bit by bit all the buildings of the Giarola Court except for the Church and the few houses remaining, underwent a process of degradation until the recent, and much needed, though still partial restoration work, was carried out by the regional Taro Park, which has its headquarters in the court.
Ubaldo Delsante
1
[1] Lino Lionello Ghirardini, La Battaglia di Fornovo: un dilemma della Storia, 2ª ed., Edizioni Storiche d’Italia, Parma, Tip. Bassoli, 1981, pp. 27, 164.
[2] Italo Dall’Aglio, La Diocesi di Parma, vol. I, Parma, Scuola Tipografica Benedettina, 1966, pp. 532-534.
[3] Ubaldo Delsante, Tra Oppiano e Giarola. Costruirono una galleria dove il fiume guastava, in Per la Val Baganza 1986-1987, Sala Baganza, Tipolitotecnica, 1986, pp. 162-171; Id., Le corti di Giarola e di Oppiano nel contesto ambientale del Parco del Taro, in Malacoda, n. 76, gennaio-febbraio 1998, pp. 20-27.
[4] Ubaldo Delsante, Collecchio. Strutture rurali e vita contadina, Parma, Officina Grafica Artigiana, 1982, pp. 255-267; Nicoletta Antonioli (a cura di), Il Parco fluviale regionale del Taro, Bologna, Centro Villa Ghigi, 1994, pp. 149-179; Franco Ceccarini, La Corte di Giarola, in Il Corriere Romeo, n. 16, dic. 2002, pp. 44-47.
[5] Ubaldo Delsante, “tra gente povera e mendica”. L’ambiente a Collecchio durante il periodo napoleonico (1796-1814), Italia Nostra, Amministrazione Comunale di Collecchio, Parma, Graphital, 2000, p. 37, 99.
[6] Ferruccio Botti, Collecchio Sala Baganza Felino e loro frazioni, Parma, Scuola Tip. Benedettina, 1961, p. 137. Ubaldo Delsante, Collecchio. Ville e residenze, Italia Nostra, Comune di Collecchio, Parma, Tip. La Nazionale, 1979 pp. 75-76.
[7] Ubaldo Delsante, La salsa di pomodoro nel Parmense, in Parma Vecia, n. 41, luglio-agosto 1984, p. 7; Marzio Dall’Acqua (a cura di), Enciclopedia di Parma. Dalle origini ai giorni nostri, Milano, Franco Maria Ricci, 1998, p. 548; Giuliano Colla, Parma Savor. Antologia del sapere e dei sapori parmigiani, Parma, Tecnografica, 2000, p. 95.
[8] Marzio Dall’Acqua (a cura di), Vecchio e nuovo mondo. Il pomodoro è colto, Cat. della mostra, Parma, Graphital, 1983, pp. 98-99.
[9] Ubaldo Delsante, Le banche in canonica. La breve stagione delle Casse Rurali cattoliche nel Parmense, III, in Malacoda, n. 96, maggio-giugno 2001, p. 35n. Naturalmente, come molti altri agricoltori e uomini d’affari, dovette subire le conseguenze del fallimento della banca: Vincenzo Paltrinieri, Il processo della Banca Agraria, Parma, Officina Grafica Fresching, 1926, pp. 11, 74.