The origins of the founder Italo Ferrari “il burattinaio parmigiano” come from the lower Parma area in the area of Sissa Trecasali. His great passion was puppets, a passion born thanks to the shows of the masters Amaduzzi, Belli and Campogalliani who entertained the communities of the territory of Sissa.
One day Italo decided to set up a banquet with some puppets made from stakes, inspired by his idols. His first performance, “La foresta perigliosa” (The Perilous Forest), soon arrived, and it met with the approval of his fellow countrymen.
In 1914 Italo created “Bargnòcla”, inspired by an old employer of his who had the particularity of a large birth on his forehead.
He had to wait until the end of the wars to devote himself fully to the work of a puppeteer where, wherever he went, he was always well appreciated by the Italian squares and theaters in which he initially performed, until the appearance on the first national experimental television, in 1953.
Italo’s son, Giordano Ferrari followed up the memories left by his father, creating an important collection of puppets and documents that also told the stories of the master puppeteers.
This collection has managed to reach our days thanks to a constancy of the Ferrari family, a large collection housed in the museum dedicated to Giordano Ferrari, which is now one of the most important Italian collections of puppet theater. The Castello dei Burattini can be visited on the ground floor of the former monastery of San Paolo, not far from Piazzale della Pace in Parma. A heritage consisting of 2842 pieces including puppets, puppets and puppets.
Still today the company is active at an international level, performing from America to China and succeeding in surviving very well to the change of time, giving smiles to young and old.