Wikipedia
Cortemaggiore is an Italian comune located in the Province of Piacenza.
The town was founded in the 1479 by the Pallavicino family, over an old Roman habitation, which had been the capital of the ancient Stato Pallavicino.
Among the religious edifices in the town are the following:
- Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie or Collegiata, was once the cathedral of the town, and is still the main church of Cortemaggiore, built in Gothic style. The interior conserves a valued polyptych, composed by twelve pieces, by Filippo Mazzola, the father of Parmigianino.
- San Giovanni: church built in 1625-1630 and frescoed by Robert de Longe in 1705
- Annunziata (Church of the Annuncation): Built in 1487, it houses two works by Il Pordenone, an Immaculate Conception and a Deposition from the Cross. Next to the church, there is a monastery with a cloister of 40 metres on all sides.
- San Giuseppe built 1576-1593 by the brotherhood of San Giuseppe, and subsequently decorated by stuccoes by Bernardo Barca and Domenico Dossi in 1697-1701
- Oratory of San Lorenzo: Built in 1666.
- Oratory of San Giovanni: Started in 1625 by the confratenity of SS Sacramento.
- Santa Maria delle Grazie fuori le mura or Madonnina: Built by the priest Anotonio Bovarini in 1661.
In 1949 the Italian entrepreneur Enrico Mattei, discovers in Cortemaggiore's subsoil an important oilfield; with this oil was product a gasoline (the only one refined from Italian oil), called Supercortemaggiore.
In 1997 to Cortemaggiore was conferred the title of "Città d'Arte" (City of Art), a particular prize assigned to the most artistical interesting city.
The municipality's motto is "Nihil sanctius quam recta fides cum sororibus associata" (Nothing is holier than a true faith combined with other virtues).