We investigate the structure and formation of charmed meson–nucleus systems, with the aim of understanding the charmed meson–nucleon interactions and the properties of the charmed mesons in the nuclear medium. The D¯ mesic nuclei are of special interest, since they have tiny decay widths due to the absence of strong decays for the D¯N pair. Employing an effective model for the D¯N and DN interactions and solving the Klein–Gordon equation for D¯ and D in finite nuclei, we find that the D−–11B system has 1s and 2p mesic nuclear states and that the D0–11B system binds in a 1s state. In view of the forthcoming experiments by the PANDA and CBM Collaborations at the future FAIR facility and the J-PARC upgrade, we calculate the formation spectra of the [D−–11B] and [D0–11B] mesic nuclei for an antiproton beam on a 12C target. Our results suggest that it is possible to observe the 2p D− mesic nuclear state with an appropriate experimental setup.