Santissima Annunziata, Parma, Mannerist church building in Parma, Italy.
The Santissima Annunziata is a Mannerist church in Parma built around an oval floor plan with ten side chapels, five on each side. The interior walls carry stucco decoration and statuary, and the main altar sits at one end of the long axis of the oval.
Construction started in 1566 to a design by Giambattista Fornovo, replacing an earlier church on the same site. The building is one of the early examples of an oval church plan in northern Italy.
The name refers to the Annunciation to Mary, a theme that runs through the paintings and sculptures found in the side chapels. The space is still used for personal prayer today, and candles in front of the altars give the interior a quiet, lived-in feeling.
The church is in central Parma and within walking distance of the city's other main sights. Visiting outside of service times gives you more freedom to move around and look at the chapels and decoration at your own pace.
The entrance is placed on the short side of the oval rather than on the long axis, which changes how you perceive the space as soon as you walk in. This was an unusual choice for church architecture at the time and shows how far Fornovo was willing to move away from convention.
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