Patron saint festival In 27 days
Saint Martin of Tours and the Castle of Canossa
📅 Every year, on 11 November
Canossa celebrates Saint Martin of Tours on 11 November, in the church dedicated to him.
Until 1991 the comune was called Ciano d'Enza, and Canossa was only the castle on the cliff; then the village took the name of its own ruin. There, in 1077, the emperor Henry IV waited three days at the gate for Gregory VII to lift his excommunication: ever since, «to go to Canossa» has meant to submit. The castle was destroyed by the men of Reggio in 1256.
Little of it is left, and the visitors who climb up to see it come above all from Germany. A little further on, at Selvapiana, Francesco Petrarca spent the summer of 1341 as the guest of Azzo da Correggio and finished his Africa there: where he stayed there is now a little temple with his statue. Further down the valley they are digging up Luceria, the town that vanished in the fourth century in a flood or an earthquake.
The Canossa guide
What to eat here 2
Tagliatelle al Ragù · Aceto Balsamico di Modena
Where to stay
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Events & festivals 1
Next up: Saint Martin of Tours and the Castle of Canossa, Wednesday 11 November
Getting there
Nearest airport: Parma, 31 km away
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Canossa 1
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🍝 The flavours of Canossa
Aceto Balsamico di Modena cooked grape must and wine vinegar, dense and sweet-and-sour
Cooked grape must and wine vinegar aged in wooden barrels: Aceto Balsamico di Modena has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2009.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Canossa
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Canossa, but an easy day trip away.
castello di San Lorenzo 📍 Gattinara · 6.2 km At 540 metres, the ruins of the castle Vercelli raised in 1187 over the mouths of the Valsesia chiesa di San Pietro 📍 Gattinara · 7.7 km The grand chancellor of Charles V asked to be buried underfoot, out of humility Villa Cavalleri 📍 Gattinara · 7.4 km Twenty oak barrels of a hundred hectolitres, then a storm and a passage to Argentina chiesa di Santa Marta 📍 Gattinara · 7.8 km Beneath the baroque, frescoes of 1460 survive: processions of notables and common folk chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario 📍 Gattinara · 8.0 km Gerolamo Giovenone's triptych of the early 1530s, above the niche of the Virgin Torre delle Castelle 📍 Gattinara · 7.9 km Gattinara's symbol: an eleventh-century tower between two walled enclosures, now among vineyards