Characteristic place created in the deconsecrated wing of the former church of S. Ludovico from which it takes its name, the art gallery is located in the beating heart of the city center and located on the ancient cardo of the Roman city.

The church of San Paolo (original name of the former Church of San Ludovico, today the Gallery) was built towards the end of the 10th century as the chapel of the female Benedictine abbey of the same name, founded by Bishop Sigefredo II in 983. The originally Romanesque building was rebuilt in neoclassical forms in the years between the 18th and 19th centuries by the architects Antonio and Niccolò Bettoli.

After the suppression of the monastery in 1810, in 1817 Duchess Maria Luigia decided to create a Ducal Chapel, intended for the religious functions of her court and the church, in her honor, was dedicated to the saint whose name it bore: San Ludovico. With the end of the Duchy, the chapel also ceased its function, in 1860 it was, in fact, deconsecrated and a few years later definitively closed. For years it was used for office purposes and only recently has it been restored to a more suitable use as an exhibition space for temporary exhibitions and other cultural initiatives promoted by the Municipality of Parma.