Audio guides to discover Parma, city of art and music

Initially built around 1580, under the domination of the Farnese family, Palazzo della Pilotta takes its name from the ancient game played by Spanish soldiers in the Guazzatoio courtyard, namely "pelota". It was initially conceived as a set of buildings to support the Farnese court and the Ducal Palace. Inside the complex there are the National Gallery, the Farnese Theatre, the Palatine Library, the Bodonian Museum and the national archaeological museum.

Inside the former monastery of San Paolo there is a small treasure, which remained forgotten for a long time. This is the so-called Chamber of the Abbess, or Chamber of St. Paul.

The original nucleus of works dates back to 1792, but it was in 1997 that the National Art Gallery underwent a profound renovation, to the point of becoming a modern exhibition space.

The church of San Francesco del Prato boasts a very particular past. Built in Gothic style in the 13th century, it soon became one of the most important churches in the city. What you can admire today, however, is not the appearance that the church maintained for a long time...

Another example of Correggio's great art in Parma is the Abbey of San Giovanni Evangelista, part of a larger complex that also includes the monastery and the ancient apothecary.

The ancient cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta stands in the area of a previous early Christian basilica and a subsequent cathedral built in the 9th century and destroyed by fire around the year 1058.

If the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta contains the first known work of the great sculptor Benedetto Antelami, namely the high relief with the Deposition from the Cross, which I invite you to visit, the baptistery is certainly his most visible work.

The Glauco Lombardi museum is the ideal place for those who want to delve deeper into the rich historical and artistic heritage of Parma between the 18th and 19th centuries.

Not only a basilica and a Marian sanctuary, but also the seat of an important chivalric order. The basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata has stood since 1539 on the site of a previous oratory, built to house a much venerated icon of John the Baptist.

Parma, which has always been linked to the world of music, is the birthplace of one of the greatest conductors of all time: Arturo Toscanini. And his birthplace, where he was born on 25 March 1867, has now been transformed into a museum that retraces the stages of Toscanini's life and career.

The Ducal Park of Parma boasts a centuries-old history, which began in 1561 with Duke Ottavio Farnese, who decided to create a green area around his new villa.

A large group of buildings that was for centuries an important Cistercian monastery with a centuries-old history.