In the splendid green setting of the Parco Ducale, the Palazzo Ducale del Giardino fits perfectly: an historical building, commissioned by Ottavio Farnese to provide the Duchy of an appropriate venue, that currently hosts the Carabinieri Command of Parma.

The history of the building began in 1561, the date when construction began under the supervision of Giovanni Francesco Testa on a project by Jacopo Barozzi (alias “il Vignola”). Similar in type to the Roman-Florentine residences, the building was soon equipped with a sumptuous fountain by Giovanni Boscoli and soon the subject of numerous interventions by renowned artists, including Girolamo MIrola, Jacopo Zanguidi (alias “Bertoja"), Carlo Cignani, Alessandro Tiarini, Agostino Carracci, Jan Sons, Giovanni Battista Trotti (alias “il Malosso”), for the decoration of the rooms on the main floor. Over the course of its history, the palace has often been modified, enlarged and modernized: first by Simone Moschino, then by Girolamo Rainaldi and, in the eighteenth century, also by Ennemond Alexandre Petitot.

The war events of the twentieth century, together with vandalism carried out by unknown persons, brought serious damage to the Palace which, due to various bureaucratic obstacles, managed to gradually return to its splendor only around 1960. Since 2004, it has been the subject of cyclical interventions restoration and enhancement.