Just outside the historic centre of Parma, guarded between the Tardini Stadium and the long tree-lined avenue nicknamed “lo Stradone” by the Parmesans, stands a small building that bears the name of a French architect, Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot, to whom Parma owes much, thanks to his expression on many of the buildings that are still visible in the city.
When he arrived at the court of Don Filippo di Borbone in Parma, he immediately won the esteem of the Minister of the Duchy of Parma, Guillame Du Tillot, who allowed him to imprint a new architectural and urban style to the ducal capital.
He was one of the first to perceive and welcome the return of the Classical style after the Mannerist excesses. He began to Diede expression of his creativity redesigning streets and gardens: he was responsible for the project of the Stradone (Stradone Martiri della Libertà) and the restoration of the Ducal Park.
Right at the end of the Stradone he built the structure that made him famous and named after him: the Casino Petitot.
The Petitot serves as a focal point, a worthy visual end to the long avenue of the Stradone, a street completely out of scale compared to the rest of the city, a real boulevard (the first real Italian boulevard modelled on the French ones) as a great European capital that recalls the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, flanked by two majestic rows of horse chestnuts.
Today, the avenue is a busy street for cars, but in the past it was customary to accompany hundreds of carriages and elegant couples on their way to the Casino, where they used to stop for a coffee. For this reason, it is considered one of the first “coffees in Italy”.