Palazzo Vescovile, Episcopal palace in Parma, Italy

Palazzo Vescovile is a Romanesque palace occupying a whole block on Piazza Duomo, facing the cathedral. Its long brick upper storeys carry arcaded trifora windows with paired red Verona marble columns, above a ground-floor portico of large stone piers walled up in the Renaissance; a tall terracotta cornice crowns the facades. The oldest core on Vicolo al Vescovado keeps a north-west tower and a portal framed in Roman stone blocks.

The oldest section, the tower and part of the facade on Vicolo al Vescovado, was built between 1045 and 1055 for Bishop Cadalo, later antipope Honorius II; some scholars date it instead to the episcopate of San Bernardo degli Uberti (1106–1133). Bishop Bernardo II raised and extended the defensive building along the vicolo in 1172. Between 1232 and 1234 Bishop Grazia had the Romanesque facade on Piazza Duomo built to a design by Rolandello or Rolandino and raised the whole west side.

The palace houses the seat of the Diocese of Parma and the Museo diocesano, which opens onto a wing along vicolo al Vescovado. In the courtyard, two coats of arms of Bishop Giovanni Antonio Sangiorgio remain on the colonnade, and his initials appear on numerous architraves. On the east side, traces of two medieval triforas survive, one still painted in tempera with a Verona red marble colonnette and a stone capital.

The palace occupies the whole block on Piazza Duomo 1, facing the cathedral; the diocesan museum entrance is on the wing along Vicolo al Vescovado. The inner courtyard, with its Renaissance sandstone colonnade and two-storey loggia, is the part to look for once inside. Visitors should dress and behave as in a religious seat.

The large arched portal on vicolo al Vescovado, in the oldest brick-clad core, has a frame made of stone blocks of Roman date. The blocks are set around the entrance itself, not in the northern wing, and the same core keeps traces of medieval bifore windows.