La Certosa

The Certosa di San Girolamo is a historic complex on the eastern edge of Parma that originally served as a Carthusian monastery. Construction began in the late 13th century, and at one point the complex housed one of the first printing presses in northern Italy. After the monastery was dissolved in the 18th century, the grounds were converted into a major tobacco factory, later used as a reformatory, and today they house the training school for the prison police. You can visit the well-preserved Baroque church, which contains works by Francesco Pescaroli and other artists, as well as two cloisters dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. The charterhouse is also known as the inspiration for Stendhal's famous novel.