Parco Regionale dello Stirone e del Piacenziano (lato Val d'Arda)

The Stirone and Piacenziano Regional Park protects river corridors and fossil-bearing hills across the provinces of Parma and Piacenza. On the Val d'Arda side, its landscapes around Castell'Arquato expose marine deposits that help define the Piacenzian stage of geological time.

Why it matters

The park brings together two kinds of protected landscape: the river environment of the Stirone and the geological sites of the Piacenziano. The hills preserve fossil-rich strata from a time when this area lay beneath the sea. The name Piacenzian, used internationally for a geological stage, comes from the study of these deposits.

What to notice

In the Val d'Arda, the park's protected sites include the Torrente Arda area, the badlands of Monte Padova and Monte Falcone, and the Monte La Ciocca formations. Erosion has carved the clay into calanchi ridges and gullies, exposing layers that contain marine fossils. The landscape offers a visible record of changing environments and the processes that shaped the present hills.

Context and history

The Piacenziano sites became the subject of geological study after Giuseppe Cortesi's discoveries in the late eighteenth century. The regional geological reserve established in 1995 protected those sites, while the Stirone river park dates to 1988. Regional law 24 of 2011 brought the two protected areas together as one park, covering about 2,716 hectares. The park's combined remit preserves both river ecosystems and the fossil-bearing landscape of the Val d'Arda.