La Chiesa di Santa Maria della Steccata has been since 1718 the official seat of the knights of the Constantinian Order of Saint George. This glorious order traces its very ancient origins to the militia that Emperor Constantine created to defend the labarum with the insignia of the cross after the victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge (312). From the imposing building, which houses Parmigianino’s work “The Wise and the Foolish Virgins,” one can access other rooms that host the Constantinian Museum. The visit route allows admiring the Sepulcher of the Dukes of Bourbon and Farnese built at the behest of Maria Luigia in 1823; the Noble Sacristy, a seventeenth-century masterpiece of cabinetmaking where precious silverware and exceptionally embroidered sacred vestments are preserved, the art gallery rich in paintings dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, and a room dedicated to objects and memories belonging to the Bourbon and Farnese families with various rarities: from sketches for the uniforms of the Constantinian Knights, to the shirt of Louis XVI worn at the scaffold and several coats of arms, watercolors, decorations, and historical memorabilia.
Information about the Museum of the Constantinian Order of Saint George
Piazza della Steccata,
43121 Parma (Parma)
0521 282 854,0521 234 937
Source: MIBACT
