The first garden of simples in Parma was created in 1630 at the wish of duke Ranuccio Farnese, tied to the faculty of medicine and meant for healing plants. It changed site several times; the present garden was refounded in 1770 by the abbot Giambattista Guatteri, who moved it here, where a dyeworks and its grounds had been.
What to see
The glasshouses were made out of the dyeworks' old sheds and turned into neoclassical greenhouses by the court architect Ennemond Petitot, the same man who worked for the dukes in the palace in the park: a utilitarian building treated as architecture. In the central space the Italian garden was traced, and trees were planted, some of which are still alive.
During the nineteenth century the direction passed to notable naturalists, who enriched the herbarium and the collections; one of them wrote a flora of the surroundings of Parma held to be one of the first examples of a pocket guide. In the twentieth century came the alpine and the tropical houses, which greatly widened the number of species.
Visiting
The garden is in strada Farini, ten minutes on foot from the cathedral; entry is cheap or free, with limited seasonal hours and closures worth checking, since they depend also on the staff available. An hour.
Our editors' tip
In 2008 the garden risked closing for lack of funds, and was saved by a group of volunteers who have since helped run it together with the university. As you walk through it, bear in mind that the tidy beds and the open glasshouses are not to be taken for granted: behind them are people who come on Sunday mornings to water.