HISTORY
The church of San Tommaso di Cabriolo, in the area bordering Borgo San Donnino, belonged to the Order of the Knights Templar. Its original foundation was probably part of land donations to the Order from the most prestigious families of Parma at the time. It was originally a dependency of thedomus of Santa Maria Maddalena di Toccalmatto, from which it successfully detached itself.
An oratory at the site was already attested to in the 11th century, but it was its passage to the Templars at the end of the 12th century that instigated the a new construction. The church was formerly dedicated to Thomas Becket. In addition to the Rotonda, there was also a hospital. In 1230, in the Capitulum seu Rotulos Decimarum of the diocese of Parma, under the Bishop Grazia, the church was cited as the Ecclesia de Cacobrolo in plebe Burgi Sancti Domnini. The estate was sacked and burned in 1309, leaving only part of the apse from the Templar phase. The complex thus remained in a state of semi-abandon, until sometime between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, when new patrons rebuilt the church, reutilizing part of the original building. The Knights of Malta maintained the commendam of San Tommaso until the Napoleonic suppressions when it passed into private hands.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The church is one of the most notable examples of architecture of the knightly orders in Emilia Romagna: the stone apse today reveals the remains of the rotunda, decorated by blind arches and lancet windows. The nave is from a later constructive phase by the Hospitallers, along more Gothic lines. The gabled façade was drastically rebuilt in 1816. The 15th-century reconstruction probably concluded with the pictorial decoration of which important traces remain along the left wall.
