Presentation

The Fabbriceria is the body that has been managing and maintaining the Cathedral since the Middle Ages. It was most likely established in the first decades of the XII century, during the episcopate of Bernardo degli Uberti, when any card reminds of the Laborerio del Duomo.

The first fabricators whose name is known are mentioned in the epigraph engraved in 1281 on the architrave of the main portal: Guido, Nicolò, Bernardino and Benvenuto. The Fabbriceria della Basilica Cattedrale di Parma, after being the protagonist and client of the construction of the monumental complex of Piazza Duomo with the Cathedral and the Baptistery, continued the conservation and maintenance of these monumental factories in the following centuries, a petrified and symbolic expression the role of mother church of the Diocese and seat of the episcopal chair, a role that still plays by statute.

Throughout its history, the Fabbriceria was made up of members appointed by the Bishop and the municipal administration of the city, chosen from among the major families of the city’s aristocracy. The economic self-sufficiency of the institution was guaranteed by the proceeds from a large land patrimony and by the income obtained from some mills belonging exclusively to the factory; this patrimony was totally forfeited by the Italian national state with the Siccardi laws of 1861, so that the Fabbriceria is currently totally without its own economic resources.

With the Lateran Treaty of 1929 the number of fabricators was increased from five to seven and they are appointed by the Minister of the Interior on the proposal of the prefect of the city, after hearing the Bishop who has the choice of two of them. Their assignment is three years, and they are entrusted with the magnificent factory of the Cathedral and the Baptistery, witnesses of the life of the city and the Diocese.

The Fabbriceria della Basilica of the Cathedral of Parma is part of the Association of Italian Factories – AFI.