A Greek-cross Renaissance basilica a few minutes from the Duomo, Santa Maria della Steccata was begun in 1521 and consecrated under Farnese patronage. Inside, the main draw is the apse and the arches over the choir, frescoed by Parmigianino with figures of Wise and Foolish Virgins — a graceful sequence in his characteristic stretched mannerist style, painted in the 1530s. The pavement covers tombs of the Farnese dukes.
The Steccata is also the mother church of the Constantinian Order of Saint George; the small Museo Costantiniano attached to it holds, among other curiosities, the bloodstained shirt Louis XVI is said to have worn at his execution.