The Room of San Paolo and the Cell of Santa Caterina

The Room of San Paolo is a museum tour that reconstructs the rooms of the private flat of Abbess Giovanna da Piacenza. The place was part of a Benedictine women's monastery, which in the early 16th century was one of the city's most important cultural points. The rooms include an almost perfectly square space, the ceiling of which was decorated in 1514 by Parma painter Alessandro Araldi with grottesche and candelabras with sacred scenes and profane images. Meanwhile, Antonio Allegri known as Correggio frescoed another room in 1519 with an illusionistic decoration of plant shoots, in which fake ovals with cherubs open up. The part below is completed with a series of faux monochrome niches with mythological subjects. The fireplace depicts Diana, an obvious reference to the Abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, who commissioned the artwork and whose heraldic insignia can be found in the centre of the ceiling.