page_title: San Francesco del Prato, Parma
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: San Francesco del Prato, Parma / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the interior of the gothich church of San Francesco del Prato in Parma. It's a francescan church, originally totally covered with frescos, which now are under a grey paint. At the beginning of 1800 it was transformed by Napoleon into a jail and divided in many floors in order to obtain rooms for the prisoners. Parmesans now collected 35000 signatures asking the restauration of the church and it's religious reopening. Italiano: Interno della chiesa di San Francesco del Prato a Parma a Parma costruita dai francescani nello stile gotico. Inizialmente completamente ricoperta di affreschi, questi ultimi sono stati coperti da un colore grigio nel momento di trasformazione in carcere. All'inizio del 1800 infatti Napoleone decretò la chiusura del convento e della chiesa per ottenere una struttura per la detenzione. La chiesa venne dunque divisa su vari piani per ottenere delle celle carcerarie. I parmigiani hanno con 35.000 firme chiesto la riapertura al culto della chiesa, e da diversi anni si stanno aspettando i restauri mai iniziati.
context_page_description: San Francesco del Prato is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church, now deconsecrated, located on Piazzale San Francesco #4 in central Parma, Italy.
context_section_description: Founded by the Franciscan order, the first church on the site was built 1227-1238. Their adjacent school once housed the theologian Bartolomeo Mastri da Meldola. The nave had two aisles, separated by columns. The cupola pinnacles were painted by Michele Anselmi.  The apse has an aged fresco depicting Christ Pantocrator attributed to Bernardino Grossi and Jacopo Loschi.
  The 'Oratorio della Concezione (Oratory of the Concession) was designed by  Bernardino Zaccagni and Giovanni Francesco Ferrari d'Agrate in the 16th century. It was decorated with frescos by Michelangelo Anselmi and Francesco Rondani in 1532-1533.
  Until it was looted by Napoleonic troops in 1803, the main altar had a painting of The Concession, a masterpiece of  Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli,  In 1816, the painting was restored, but is now displayed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. In the oratory, there is a copy . Most of the other paintings once in the church have either been destroyed, dispersed, or are now in either the church of Santissima Trinità Vecchia, or in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.
  After the suppression of the rites in 1800, the church became a city jail.  Cells were in the nave, and this led to a replacement of the windows, and covering of the frescos. The bell-tower held the isolation cell for special prisoners. The church is undergoing restoration, and plans to be reconsecrated in 2020.
caption: Interior in Need of Restoration
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "FE190/X750", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:30 15:56:04", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "1066", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "High gain up", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3652", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5405", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "31/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "274", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:05:30 15:56:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:05:30 15:56:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "163/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2112", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2816", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}