Mantua (Mantua in Latin) is an Italian town of 49 440
inhabitants, the capital of the province of the same name in
Lombardy. Since July 2008 the Lombard city of art, with Sabbioneta,
both united by the legacy left to them by the Gonzagas who made them
two of the main centers of the Italian and European Renaissance, has
been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. . Given its
importance as the capital of the marquisate and then the duchy of
Mantua, it is represented among the fourteen noble cities of the
Vittoriano, as a symbol of "noble mother" and precursor of the
subsequent Savoy monarchy and the unity of Italy.
In 2016,
the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism awarded
Mantua with the title of Italian capital of culture. In 2017 Mantua
and its province, together with those of Bergamo, Brescia and
Cremona, were awarded as the European Region of Gastronomy under the
name of Eastern Lombardy. Mantua was also a European city of sport
in 2019.
Mantua is the only city, understood as a widespread
urban museum, present on the Google Arts & Culture platform, with
more than 1,000 digitized works, 40 virtual exhibitions set up in 8
different virtual museums.
Furthermore, according to what is
reported in the Legambiente report "Urban Ecosystem 2017", the city
was ranked first in the ranking of the best Italian cities for
quality of the environment and life.
How to orient yourself
It is possible to visit and discover the
city interactively with the Mantua App for smartphones. A city map is
available here.
The historic core of the city consists of:
1
Sordello Square. Center of the old city (Civitas vetus), overlooked by
some of the most important historical buildings of the city: Palazzo
Ducale, Duomo, Palazzo Bianchi, Cà degli Uberti, Palazzo Bonacolsi,
Palazzo degli Acerbi.
2 Castle Square. With the Castle of San Giorgio
and the National Archaeological Museum.
3 Santa Barbara Square. With
the Basilica of Santa Barbara.
4 Lombard League Square. Overlooking
part of the Palazzo Ducale with the Corte Vecchia and the Apartment of
Isabella d'Este.
5 Via Tazzoli. With the Zuccaro Tower.
6 Via
Cavour. With the Tower of the Gabbia.
7 Via Academy. With the
Accademia Virgiliana and the Teatro Bibiena.
8 Broletto square. With
the Arengario and the Torre del Podestà.
9 Herb Square. With the
Rotonda di San Lorenzo, the Palazzo della Ragione, the Clock Tower, the
Palazzo del Podestà and the Casa del Mercante.
10 Piazza Mantegna.
With the Basilica of S. Andrea and the Torre del Salaro.
11 Matilda
of Canossa square. With Palazzo Canossa and the Church of the Madonna
del Terremoto.
12 Piazza Virgiliana. With the Monument to Virgil, the
Diocesan Museum and the Great Hospital of San Leonardo.
Going along
Via del Principe (from Piazza Sordello along Via Roma, Via Principe
Amedeo and Via Giovanni Acerbi, where the Casa del Mantegna is located),
you reach the complex of
13 Palazzo Te. Monumental residence,
commissioned in 1524 by Federico II Gonzaga to the architect Giulio
Romano.
Neighborhoods
Historical centre, Valletta Paiolo,
Lunetta, Valletta Valsecchi, Pompilio-Due Pini, Borgo Chiesanuova, Te
Brunetti-Trincerone-Camattino, Cittadella-Mulina-Montata, Colle Aperto,
Castelnuovo-Angeli, Dosso del Corso, Belfiore, Formigosa, Frassino,
Virgiliana , Borgo Belgioioso, Ponte Rosso, Castelletto, Gambarara,
Migliaretto, Pioppe-Mezzalana, Boccabusa, Te, Valdaro, Prade-Cantelma,
Industrial Zone.
Regions
Castelletto Borgo, Cittadella,
Formigosa, Frassino, Gambarara, Lunetta, Virgiliana.
St. Peter's Cathedral (Duomo)
dedicated to St. Peter, the current
cathedral in Romanesque style with Gothic additions, was built between
1395 and 1401 after a fire, centuries earlier, had destroyed a previous
early Christian temple. It was restructured in 1545 by Giulio Romano,
who left the façade intact but modified the forms, taking inspiration
from the early Christian basilicas. The current façade, in Carrara
marble, dates back to 1761. The side features Gothic inserts such as
rosettes, cusps and pinnacles, remnants of the ancient façade. Inside
you can admire the coffered ceiling that overlooks the three naves: the
main one is decorated with statues of sibyls and prophets dating back to
the sixteenth century. Under the main altar is the incorrupt body of
Sant'Anselmo da Baggio, patron saint of the city. The Cathedral, located
in the monumental Piazza Sordello, is the bishopric of Mantua.
St.
Andrew's Basilica
designed by Leon Battista Alberti, it was built
starting from 1472 and completed 328 years later with the construction
of the dome based on designs by Filippo Juvarra. The relic of the
Precious Blood of Christ brought to Mantua by the Roman centurion
Longinus is kept in the crypt inside the Sacred Vases. In one of the
chapels is the funeral monument of Andrea Mantegna, dominated by the
bronze effigy of the painter of the Gonzaga court.
Palatine Basilica
of Santa Barbara
The church of the Gonzaga court was commissioned by
Duke Guglielmo who commissioned the Mantuan architect Giovan Battista
Bertani with the project. An integral part of the Doge's Palace, the
building of the church was completed in 1572.
Roundabout of San
Lorenzo
it is the oldest church in the city, built in the 11th
century during the Canossa domination. With a central round plan, the
Rotonda di San Lorenzo is located at a lower level than Piazza delle
Erbe and preserves inside a women's gallery and traces of Byzantine
school frescoes dating back to the 11th-12th centuries. Over the
centuries it underwent radical transformations; deconsecrated, it became
a warehouse so much so that at the beginning of the twentieth century it
was incorporated into buildings subsequent to its construction.
Expropriated in 1908, the rotunda of San Lorenzo was restored and
reopened in 1911 and finally returned to its original religious
destination in 1926.
San Sebastian Church
begun in 1460 by Luca
Fancelli based on a project by Leon Battista Alberti, it was completed
in 1529. Deconsecrated in the 18th century, it was used for various uses
until 1925 when, after a questionable restoration which added the two
entrance stairways, it was transformed into famedio of the Mantuan
fallen of all wars.
Norsa Torrazzo Synagogue
it was transferred
and faithfully rebuilt in its current location, when the demolition of
the Jewish quarter was decided, between 1899 and 1902.
Bishop's
Seminary
the building, located next to the Cathedral in Via Fratelli
Cairoli, was restructured in 1825 in a neoclassical style as can be seen
in particular in the façade and in the internal courtyard.
Church of
Sant'Apollonia – via Benzoni 20
Church of San Barnaba – piazza
Bazzani (a small Baroque jewel in the heart of the historic center,
known for its harmonious architecture and central location near a quaint
piazza and fountain)
Church of Santa Caterina – Corso Garibaldi
Church of San Cristoforo – via Acerbi
Church of Sant'Egidio – via
Frattini
Church of San Filippo Neri – via Pasquale Miglioretti
(Borgochiesanuova)
Church of San Francesco – piazza San Francesco
d'Assisi 5 (a Gothic-style church with deep ties to the Gonzaga family,
who used it as a burial site for several generations of dukes and nobles
in the medieval and Renaissance periods)
Church of Saints Gervasio
and Protasio – via Trento 1
Church of San Giuseppe Artigiano – via
Indipendenza
Church of San Leonardo – Piazza San Leonardo
Church
of San Luigi Gonzaga – via Semeghini Defendi 8 (Te Brunetti)
Church
of Our Lady of the Earthquake (Madonna del Terremoto) – piazza Canossa
(a small Baroque chapel built in 1754 as a vow of thanks to the Virgin
Mary after the city was spared from a major earthquake in 1693; a
bas-relief above the door dramatically depicts Mantua shaking during the
event)
Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli – via della Certosa (Borgo
Angeli)
Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli – piazza Frassino 2
(Frassino)
Church of Santa Maria del Gradaro – via Gradaro
Church
of Santa Maria della Carità – via Corridoni 33
Church of Santa Maria
del Carmine
Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria – via Fernelli (a
medieval chapel also known as a site linked to themes of victory and
devotion)
Church of San Martino – via Pomponazzo
Church of San
Maurizio – via Chiassi
Church of San Michele Arcangelo – via Verona
47 (Citadel)
Church of Ognissanti – corso Vittorio Emanuele 146
Church of Sant'Orsola – corso Vittorio Emanuele 53
Church of Santa
Paola – piazza dei Mille (historically significant as a convent church
favored by the Gonzagas)
Church of Pope St. Pius X – viale don Luigi
Sturzo 22
Church of Santi Simone e Giuda – via Fernelli
Church of
Santo Spirito – via Vittorino da Feltre
Church of Santa Teresa – via
Mazzini
Religious buildings demolished
Church of the Forty Hours
Church of San
Domenico
Church of San Giovanni al Tempio
Church of Sant'Agnese
Church of Santa Maria di Capo di Bove
St Stephen's Church
Oratory
of Santa Maria del Melone
Ducal Palace
it is perhaps more correct to speak of a
"city-palace", as the architectural complex is made up of numerous
buildings connected to each other by corridors and galleries, and
enriched by internal courtyards, some hangings, and vast gardens. The
Gonzaga palace, by extension of the roofs, is the second in Europe
surpassed only by the Vatican. It does not appear improper to define the
Gonzaga palace as the Palazzi Ducali, given the habit of almost every
Duke of building his own residence which was added to what was
previously built. Even before the coming to power of the Gonzagas, the
first nucleus of the Palazzo had been built, but the history of the
complex is identified above all with that of the family that governed
the city until 1707. Among others, the so-called Camera degli Sposi is
very famous ( Camera picta) in the Castle of San Giorgio, part of the
"city-palace", frescoed by Andrea Mantegna and dedicated to Ludovico III
Gonzaga and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg. Having become Austrian
Mantua, the renovations continued until the second half of the 18th
century by the governors sent by the Emperor.
Palazzo Te
it is the
work of Giulio Romano who in 1525 designed it on commission from the
Marquis Federico II Gonzaga who used it for his leisure. He made his
"official" lover Isabella Boschetti stay there. The "Palazzo dei lucidi
inganni" stood in the center of an island full of woods and surrounded
by the waters of a lake, now dried up: mysterious, rich in symbols and
myths that stand out in the stupendously frescoed rooms also by Giulio
Romano himself, like the famous Sala dei giganti and that of Cupid and
Psyche and, last but not least, the hall of the horses which celebrates
the Gonzaga stables famous throughout Europe at the time.
Palace of
Reason
it was built when Guido da Correggio was podestà (1242), in
the municipal era, with public functions and for the purpose of allowing
city assemblies and gatherings. On the ground floor, the building
housed, as now, numerous shops, while justice was administered in the
large hall on the upper floor. On the walls of this room, the remains of
recently restored medieval frescoes from the end of the 12th and 13th
centuries are visible. This hall is accessed via a steep staircase
located under the Clock Tower built in the 15th century, the same period
as the porticoes overlooking Piazza Erbe. The Palazzo is now used as an
exhibition venue hosting art exhibitions organized by the Municipality
of Mantua.
Palazzo Bonacolsi (Castiglioni)
it is located in Piazza
Sordello, it was built by Pinamonte dei Bonacolsi around 1272 and
readapted by Luigi Gonzaga after the conquest of power in 1328. It was
the ancient residence of the Bonacolsi family, who governed the city
from 1272 to 1328. The building is currently still the residence of the
Castiglioni counts family, descendant of Baldassarre Castiglione,
politician and scholar of the 16th century, author of Il Cortegiano. On
the ground floor the original entrance door with a large two-tone
pointed arch decorated with shields with the Bonacolsi coat of arms.
Palazzo del Podesta
also called "Palazzo del Broletto", it was built
in 1227, commissioned by the Brescian Laudarengo Martinengo appointed
podestà of Mantua. From 1462 it underwent an important restructuring by
Giovanni da Arezzo on behalf of Ludovico III Gonzaga.
San Sebastian
Palace
it was built between 1506 and 1508 at the behest of the
Marquis Francesco II who lived there and died there in 1519. It was used
by the Gonzagas for thirty years and already in 1536 abandoned and
stripped by successive dukes.
In the main hall of the building there
were nine paintings by Mantegna depicting The Triumphs of Caesar which
were sold to the English crown and are now kept in Hampton Court. It
underwent multiple transformations until 1998 when the restoration work
began. Since 2005 it has been used as a City Museum. In the rooms that
still preserve traces of frescoes from the glorious past such as the
Chamber of the Crogiuolo, the Chamber of the Arrows, the Chamber of the
Sun and in the Loggia dei Marmi, paintings, statues, busts, friezes and
other architectural finds are exhibited.
Arc Palace
it was built
in 1784 on a pre-existing 15th century building by the architect Antonio
Colonna for the D'Arco family of Trentino origins. Characterized by the
large neoclassical facade inspired by the art of Palladio, the palace is
a museum venue for the art treasures it contains: still furnished with
the family's furniture, it houses important art collections among which
the eighteenth-century canvases by Giuseppe Bazzani stand out, a library
of over six thousand volumes and a collection of scientific instruments.
Frescoes (1520) attributed to Giovanni Maria Falconetto can be seen in
the Sala dello Zodiaco. The trial of Andreas Hofer, hero of Tyrolean
independence against French domination, was celebrated in the Palace in
1810.
House of Mantegna
home of the painter Andrea Mantegna, it
was built on land donated by the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga who appointed
him court painter in 1457. It is a square red brick building with a
cylindrical courtyard in the center opening onto a circle of sky,
re-proposed in the famous Camera degli sposi in the Doge's Palace.
House of Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi set its story to music and the
Mantuans gave him their residence; towards the end of Piazza Sordello is
the house of "Rigoletto", the Gonzaga court jester.
In reality, the
character has little Mantuan, Verdi's opera of the same name was in fact
taken from a drama by Victor Hugo and readapted in the Mantuan
territory, transforming the king of France into the duke of Mantua, and
changing the name of the protagonist from Triboulet to Rigoletto .
The fifteenth-century structure houses the sculpture of Rigoletto, by
Aldo Falchi, placed in the small internal courtyard.
House of Blessed Osanna Andreasi
in via Frattini 9. It is a unique
example of a Mantuan residence built in the 15th century, in the
Fancellian style, where the Blessed Osanna Andreasi lived, a member of
an illustrious family who participated in the ruling and cultural class
of the Gonzaga state.
Bertani's house
in via Trieste 8. It was the
residence of Giovan Battista Bertani, architect in the service of the
Gonzaga dukes, who between 1554 and 1556 transformed the pre-existing
1300 building owned by the Striggi marquises. Singular was the idea of
inserting in the facade two tombstones with engraved texts of Vitruvius
and two Ionic columns, one of which sawn in half with engravings and
decorations that didactically report the rules deducible from the
Vitruvian treatise, De architectura. Subsequently, the ownership of the
Bertani house changed numerous times, reviving a new brief artistic
season when in the fifties of the twentieth century it was purchased by
the Mantuan painter Vindizio Nodari Pesenti.
House of Giulio Romano
located in via Carlo Poma 18, it was Federico Gonzaga who convinced
Giulio Pippi known as Giulio Romano to come to Mantua. In need of a home
Giulio Romano, in the year 1544, in what was then Contrada Larga, built
the residence which, despite an intervention in the 19th century by the
architect Paolo Pozzo, keeps the architectural style of Romano
unchanged.
Merchant House
Corner between Piazza delle Erbe and
Piazza Mantegna. It is also known as the "Casa di Boniforte da
Concorezzo", the former owner who had it built in 1455. The building is
characterized by an astonishing terracotta facade with Venetian-style
decorations.
Market house
Marconi Square. The building, presumably
corresponding to the Domus Mercati, was rebuilt in 1462 by the architect
Luca Fancelli on commission from the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga. During
the restoration work (1997-2001), important frescoes attributed to the
school of Andrea Mantegna came to light.
Rabbi's house
in via
Giuseppe Bertani 54. It was built in the years around 1680 by the
Flemish architect Frans Geffels, in Mantua as prefect of the Gonzaga
factories. Four-story building, the facade is characterized by stucco
panels depicting biblical places and episodes. It was built inside the
ghetto established a few decades earlier, welcoming, as per tradition,
the families of religious leaders of the large Jewish community of
Mantua.
Great Hospital of San Leonardo
in Piazza Virgiliana.
Commissioned by Ludovico III Gonzaga for public assistance and finished
around 1470 by the architect Luca Fancelli, in 1797 it was transformed
into a prison and subsequently into barracks. It currently houses
offices of the State Police.
Palace of the Academy
in via
Accademia, piazza Dante. Based on a project by Giuseppe Piermarini in
1770, between 1773 and 1775 it was the architect Paolo Pozzo who took
care of the reconstruction works of the palace of medieval origin which
had first become the seat of the Accademia degli Invaghiti and then of
the Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Letters, current Virgilian
National Academy. The neoclassical building includes a typical example
of Baroque represented by the Scientific Theater of the Academy known as
del Bibiena, named after the architect Antonio Bibiena who built it
between 1767 and 1769
Palace of Agriculture
in Piazza Martiri di
Belfiore. It was built in 1926-27 as Palazzo dei Sindacati on a project
by Eng. Charles Finzi. It took on its current name, becoming the
headquarters of the major provincial organizations linked to agriculture
such as the Agricultural Consortium, the Federation of Direct Farmers,
the Federation of Farmers and the Agricultural Inspectorate.
Bank of
Italy building
In via Baldassare Castiglioni 3. It was built between
1914 and 1923 to a design by the architect Gaetano Moretti, exponent of
Liberty and Eclecticism. The latter style is evident in the finishes and
decorations of the facades which recall Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance and
exotic architectures. Built to house the provincial headquarters of the
Bank of Italy, this function ceased at the end of 2008 with the closure
of the Mantua branch of the issuing institution. In the meantime, on 29
January 2007 the palace was classified of historic-artistic interest by
the Lombardy regional directorate for cultural and landscape heritage.
Canossa Palace
located in Piazza Canossa. The palace was built in the
seventeenth century on commission from the Marquises Canossa, a family
of ancient lineage from Verona. The facade, in ashlar, recalls the
sixteenth-century solutions of Giulio Romano and is characterized by a
marble portal guarded by two dogs from the family coat of arms. Another
detail of particular architectural value is a monumental Baroque
staircase that leads to the noble floor of the building.
Capilupi
Palace
in via Conception. It became the residence of the noble
Capilupi family in 1414. The entrance portal was designed by Giulio
Romano.
Palazzo Cavriani
on Trent Street. From the fifteenth
century it was the residence of the noble Cavriani family. It was
rebuilt in 1756 by the architect Alfonso Torreggiani. The exterior has a
series of windows with sturdy grilles, while those on the upper floor
have triangular and crescent-shaped roofs. The interior opens with a
large hall full of stuccos and frescoes by Mantuan painters including
Giuseppe Bazzani and Francesco Maria Raineri.
Colloredo Palace
in
via Carlo Poma 11. The building also known as "palazzo
Guerrieri-Gonzaga", was purchased by Giovanni Battista Guerrieri in 1599
who entrusted its renovation to the architect Antonio Maria Viani. The
pre-Baroque facade is characterized and decorated by twelve herms made
of lime mortar with a surface finish in marmorino alternating male and
female figures. Having become the property of the Colloredo counts with
Carlo Ludovico Colloredo husband of Eleonora Gonzaga (1699-1779) of the
Vescovato line, on 30 March 1872 it was purchased by the Municipality
and used as the seat of the Judicial Offices of the Court. It has since
become the city's "Palace of Justice".
Palace of Bath
in via
Principe Amedeo 30,32. Eighteenth-century building underwent
nineteenth-century interventions on the prospects by the architect
Giovanni Cherubini. The internal rooms were decorated by valuable
painters such as Giuseppe Bazzani and Giovanni Cadioli. It is currently
the seat of the Prefecture and of the Provincial Administration.
Municipal building
in via Roma 39. It is home to the offices and
council chamber of the municipality of Mantua. The building that
belonged to the Gonzaga di Bozzolo branch from the 15th century, after
numerous changes of ownership, was purchased by the civic administration
in 1819, which ordered its restructuring, both internally and
externally, between 1825 and 1832, with assignment to the neoclassical
architect Gian Battista Vergani.
Deaf Palace
in via Pomponazzo 23.
Benedetto was the first marquis of the Deaf family to want the building
of the same name to be built. He commissioned the project and the
follow-up of the works, which began in 1680, to the Flemish architect
Frans Geffels, prefect of the Gonzaga factories. One of the rare
examples of Baroque in the Virgilian city was born. Of particular value
above the entrance portal, a tondo with the Madonna and Child, high
relief by Giovanni Battista Barberini, a work inserted in a facade of
the Doric order and in plaster and partially in rusticated ashlar, rich
in other decorations and bas-reliefs in marble and stucco. The Palazzo
is private and therefore closed to the public.
Valenti-Gonzaga Palace
in via Pietro Frattini 7. Residence of the Marquis Valenti Gonzaga since
1500, the palace underwent a radical transformation in the 17th century,
constituting a gigantic architectural structure, sumptuous on the
outside, the internal courtyard richly decorated in stucco astonishing,
and full of frescoes and author's statues inside. Since then it has been
one of the most important examples of architecture and decorations of
the Baroque period in Mantua. As with other works of this style, the
author was the architect Frans Geffels (1625-1694). Recently restored,
it is used as offices.
Fishmongers
also called Loggia di Giulio
Romano, they were precisely designed by the great architect of
Mannerism. The work, carried out in 1536, consisted in the
transformation of the medieval bridge that crossed the Rio with the
construction of two parallel porticoes which were destined for the fish
trade.
Villa Nuvolari
in viale Piave 28. Originally called
Villa Rossini; it was in fact commissioned by the skeet shooting
champion Romolo Rossini, to the architect Luigi Corsini, in 1926. Its
construction began in 1929, while in the forties it was purchased by
Tazio Nuvolari, who never lived there, limiting himself to using the
garden as a garage. Upon the death of the racing champion, his widow
Carolina Nuvolari gave the villa to the city hospital Carlo Poma in
exchange for an annuity. Since 2005, the building has become the
headquarters of banking institutions.
Ca' degli Uberti – piazza
Sordello
Casa della Cervetta – Piazza delle Erbe
House of Marco
Antonio Antimaco – via Porto
Casa de' Speziali – via Giovanni Chiassi
Tortelli house – Broletto square
Palazzo Acerbi – piazza Sordello
Palazzo Andreani, also known as the "palace of the chamber of commerce"
– via Calvi
Palazzo Andreasi – via Cavour
Arrivabene Palace,
attributed to Luca Fancelli – via Giovanni Arrivabene
Palazzo Benzoni
– via Mazzini
Palazzo Bianchi, also known as the "bishop's palace" –
piazza Sordello
Palazzo Biondi – via Cavriani
Palazzo Bonoris –
via Cavour
Palazzo Cadenazzi-Risi – via Cavour
Palazzo Cantone del
Bonsignore from the 18th century – via Giulio Romano
Palazzo
Cantoni-Marca – via Giovanni Chiassi
Palazzo del Capitano, later part
of the "Palazzo Ducale" – piazza Sordello
Palazzo Capilupi De Grado -
Piazza San Giovanni
Palazzetto dei conti Casali – via Fratelli
Bandiera
Magician's Palace - Piazza San Leonardo
Palazzo del
Massaro – Broletto square
Palazzo Gonzaga di Vescovato – via Principe
Amedeo
Palazzo Mainoldi, used in the 19th century as a Mainolda
prison – Via della Mainolda
Palazzo Nievo - Via Ippolito Nievo
Palazzo Plattis then Siliprandi - via Giovanni Arrivabene
Palace of
San Cristoforo – via Giulio Romano
Palazzo Strozzi - corso Vittorio
Emanuele
Palazzo degli Studi – via Roberto Ardigò
Palazzo
Valentini – corso Vittorio Emanuele
Bridge of the Mills
the bridge was designed by the engineer
Alberto Pitentino, built in the XII century in order to regulate the
waters of the river Mincio and avoid its swamping. A difference in
height of a few meters between Lake Superiore and Lake Mezzo was
therefore artificially created, which from the year 1229 fed 12 mills.
The ancient medieval building was destroyed by air raids during the
Second World War.
St George's Bridge
the bridge was included in
the military defense system uniting the fortified village of San Giorgio
with the Gonzaga court. At first in wood, it was built in masonry by
Ludovico Gonzaga at the end of the 14th century, thus dividing the Mezzo
lake from the Lower lake. In 1922 the arches were filled in and the
bridge assumed its current shape.
Bibiena Theatre
in via Accademia 47. The "Teatro Scientifico
dell'Accademia", a masterpiece by Antonio Bibiena (1697-1774) was
inaugurated on 3 December 1769. A few weeks later, on 16 January 1770,
it hosted a concert by the young Mozart, not yet fourteen years old. The
austere neoclassical façade, by Piermarini, seems to conceal the
imaginative late-Baroque expression of the theater which aroused so much
enthusiasm in Mozart the father. The Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana
founded in 1768 is located in the same building.
Social Theater
in
Piazza Cavallotti. The Teatro Sociale was born on the initiative of a
group of citizens constituting a company of ninety boxes. The architect
Luigi Canonica was commissioned to design a neoclassical-style theater
which, after four years of work, was opened to the public on the evening
of 26 December 1822. The hall of the Teatro Sociale in Mantua is made up
of five tiers: three tiers of boxes, two orders of galleries (loggia,
gallery). Canonica decided to rely on Hayez for the interior
decorations. The Teatro Sociale is still open and in operation. It is a
private theatre, owned by around eighty boxes who take care of its
maintenance and proper functioning. It is a theater recognized by the
law of 14 August 1967 nº800 as one of the 29 Italian Traditional
Theaters.
Court Theater of the Gonzagas
it has not been active
since 1896. The area now occupied by the National Archaeological Museum
of Mantua was included in the perimeter of the Palazzo Ducale and
starting from 1549, commissioned by Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and designer
by the architect Giovan Battista Bertani, the first theater of the Corte
dei Gonzaga. Destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt between 1591 and 1592. A
third theater designed by the architect Antonio Maria Viani was
inaugurated in 1608 with the representation of Claudio Monteverdi's
tragedy L'Arianna. In the Austrian era, a fourth theatre, Nuovo Teatro
Arciducale, was inaugurated on 27 February 1733. The first designs were
by Ferdinando Galli da Bibbiena and the work was completed by one of his
pupils, Andrea Galluzzi. A fifth theatre, designed by Giuseppe
Piermarini, was opened on 10 May 1783. The Regio, as it was called
during the 19th century, was gradually abandoned due to competition from
the new Teatro Sociale. In 1896 the Teatro Regio, sold by the state
property, was purchased by the Municipality of Mantua which radically
transformed it first into a cocoon market, then into a fruit and
vegetable market and finally destined for its current function as the
headquarters of the National Archaeological Museum of Mantua.
Clock tower
the tower, with a rectangular plan, was erected in
1472 to a design by Luca Fancelli and the mechanical clock designed by
Bartolomeo Manfredi was placed there the following year. In the niche
below, created in 1639, a statue of the Immaculate Virgin has been
placed.
Tower of the Podesta
the "Torre Civica" del Broletto
(another name for the tower), which Casa Tortelli leans against, stands
on the homonymous square, has a height of almost 47 meters and since
1227 on the initiative of the mayor Laudarengo Martinengo, has been an
integral part of the majestic Palazzo del Podestà. On the side towards
Piazza Broletto the coat of arms of the podestà Gabriello Ginori, dating
back to 1494, stands out.
Zuccaro Tower
the tower, 42 meters high,
was built in the first half of the 12th century. The first written
records date back to 1143. It is located in via Enrico Tazzoli. The name
derives from the family that would have owned it, even if the popular
imagination has fueled the idea that the name arose from the presence of
sugar stored nearby, in fact it is called "Tor dal Sücar" in the local
dialect. It was bought by Pinamonte dei Bonacolsi in 1273 from the
Ripalta family.
Gambulini Tower
the tower, 37 meters high, stands
in via Ardigò. From documentation of the time it already existed in
1200, deriving the name from the family that owned it. From these it was
sold to the Ripalta family and then to the da Oculo, in 1289 it became
the property of the Gonzagas, not yet sovereigns of Mantua. The building
annexed to the tower became the occasional residence of Aloisio Gonzaga,
lord of Castel Goffredo. Here the leader Giovanni dalle Bande Nere died
on 30 November 1526. It was later merged into the Jesuit college and
convent and since 1883 it has been part of the Mantua State Archive
complex.
Recently, a project has been launched to transform the tower
into a panoramic terrace that allows a 360-degree view of the historic
center of Mantua.
Salaro Tower
from the 13th century, it was used
as a salt deposit.
Arrivabene Tower
the corner tower stands in via
Arrivabene and was erected at the same time as the family palace of the
same name, attributed to Luca Fancelli, in 1481.
Tower of San
Domenico
It stands next to Giulio Romano's Pescherie and is what
remains of the church and convent of San Domenico built in the Gothic
style in 1466.
Civic tower of the Palazzo del Podestà
Tower house
of the Boateri, from the 13th century
Burgo paper mill
The
building was designed by Pier Luigi Nervi on commission from Cartiere
Burgo and built between 1961 and 1964. The primary objective was to
place in a single room 250 meters long, a single continuous cycle
machine for transforming pasta of wood in newsprint. The solution found
by Nervi for the roof meant that the building was called a "suspended
factory" in particular for the four steel cables suspended from two
50-metre high reinforced concrete frames.
On 9 February 2013 the
machines of the Burgo paper mill stopped, marking the end of paper
production. In 2015 the factory was acquired by the Treviso group Pro
Gest of the Zago family to be reconverted into the production of
recycled paper for packaging under the name of Pro Gest Mantova and with
an investment of 150 million euros.
St George's Castle
manor house to defend the fortress-city of
Mantua, it was built from 1395 to 1406 by Bartolino da Novara
commissioned by Francesco I Gonzaga on the ruins of the Church of Santa
Maria di Capo di Bove.
Fortress of Sparafucile
built in medieval
times, it was part of the eastern fortifications of Mantua, used in
particular to defend the bridge of San Giorgio, so much so that for a
long time it was exclusively called Rocchetta di San Giorgio. Its
current name was established after the setting on the "deserted bank of
the Mincio", of the tavern of the assassin Sparafucile, place of the
tragic epilogue of Rigoletto, one of the best known works by Giuseppe
Verdi.
Fort of Pietole
the fort of Pietole, although rising today
in the municipality of Borgo Virgilio, was part of the defensive system
of the city of Mantua together with the Castle of San Giorgio and the
Forte di Belfiore. It was built by the French in 1808.
Defensive
towers
Cage Tower
the tower was built by the Bonacolsi in the last
decades of the 13th century and acquired its current name in 1576 when
Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga had the large iron cage built as an "open-air
prison" where the condemned were exposed to public ridicule.
Tower of
Sant'Alò or Torre Nuova
the tower is a construction of 1370 located
in Piazza Arche, which was part of the defensive system of the city.
Tower house of the Bonacolsi
the tower, which stands at the end of
vicolo Bonacolsi, is part of the 13th century Palazzo Bonacolsi.
Door Julia
Porta Giulia is the only current evidence of the
medieval and Renaissance fortifications. Already existing in the
Bonacolsian era, it was rebuilt in 1549, probably designed by Giulio
Romano. It owes its name to the existence, at the time of its first
construction, of the adjacent church of Santa Giulia, which was later
destroyed.
Vault of St. Peter
"Voltone di San Pietro" or "Porta di
San Pietro", until the end of the XIII century, was one of the three
ancient gates which, inserted in the first wall of the city, closed the
access to Piazza San Pietro (now Piazza Sordello), center of the civitas
vetus.
Portals of the Eagles
the two "Portals of the Eagles",
equipped with gates, had the function of delimiting the landscape space
surrounding Palazzo Te. The project of the portals and the green area
that contemplated tree-lined avenues to be used for public promenades
was entrusted in 1805 to Giovanni Antonio Antolini, Royal Architect and
Inspector of the Royal Palaces of Mantua. The eagles that surmount the
portals were designed by the Bolognese architect and sculpted in 1808 by
the Veronese Gaetano Muttoni. In 1990 the Portals of the Eagles were
restored on the initiative of the F.A.I. Fund for the Italian
Environment.
Sordello Square
is the ancient hub of Mantua's artistic and
political life, of modest dimensions (150 × 60 m) it houses among the
main monumental buildings of the city, such as the Ducal Palace (Palazzo
del Capitano and Domus Magna), the Acerbi palace, to which inside is the
Bonacolsi chapel, dominated by the Torre della Gabbia, the Bonacolsi
palace (now Castiglioni), the bishop's seat of Bianchi palace (from the
name of the family that built it in the eighteenth century) and the
Cathedral. A recent accidental archaeological discovery (December 2006)
has brought to light the mosaic floors and the remains of a Roman domus
from the imperial age which can currently be visited within a temporary
structure.
Via Broletto
important road artery that connects Piazza
delle Erbe to Piazza Sordello, passing under the Voltone di San Pietro.
Broletto square
with the expansion of the city beyond the primitive
historic nucleus, towards the year 1190, Piazza Broletto was created
which is still surrounded by buildings from the municipal period such as
the Palazzo del Massaro, the Arengario and the Palazzo del Podestà,
called also Palazzo del Broletto, with the Town Tower. On the facade of
the latter building stands out a thirteenth-century statue of the
Veronese school depicting Virgil enthroned, traditionally called "la
vecia" (the old woman) in the local dialect. In the center of the
square, a fountain with a Veronese marble basin and three dolphins
placed vertically was placed in the center of the square in 1894.
Herb Square
always a place of trade, it opens to the south with the
"Casa di Giovan Boniforte da Concorezzo" (or "Casa del Mercante") of
1455, continues with the Romanesque Rotonda di San Lorenzo, the Clock
Tower, the Palazzo della Ragione and closes with Palazzo Broletto (or
Palazzo del Podestà) built in the XII century, which separates it and
gives its name to the adjacent square.
Matilda of Canossa square
The seventeenth-century Palazzo Canossa, the church of the Madonna del
Terremoto and, on the third side, a porticoed building from 1720
overlook the square. From the sixteenth century to the present day, the
square changed its name several times, assuming in sequence the
denominations of Plateola cum uno puteo (small square with the well),
"piazza alberriggia" and, in the 17th century, "piazza del fieno" when
it was transformed definitively with the construction of Palazzo
Canossa. On the square there is also an ancient Art Nouveau newsstand,
dating back to 1882 and restored by the FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano.
Virgil Square
originally there was the port of "Ancona" with the time
partially buried. Piazza Virgiliana was commissioned by General Sextius
Alexandre François de Miollis, governor during the French occupation,
who induced the city authorities to transform the shapeless space, often
partially submerged by the flooding of Lake Mezzo, into a square used
for military exercises and to host a monument that recalled that Mantua
was the birthplace of Virgil. The assignment was given to the architect
Paolo Pozzo. The depressions were filled and the constructions of little
value that surrounded the clearing were demolished to allow the
insertion of trees, plants and shrubs. The monument inaugurated in 1801,
was destroyed in 1919 to be replaced by the current work in Carrara
marble, whose project was entrusted to the architect Luca Beltrami. The
inauguration took place in 1927.
80th Infantry Square
Leon
Battista Alberti Square
Ancona square
Piazza Ferrante Aporti
Arche Square
Cesare Bazzani Square
St. Peter's Rectory Square
Piazza Castello
Piazza Felice Cavallotti
Concord Square
Piazza
Carlo d'Arco
Philippine Square
Square of the Thousand
Piazza
Teofilo Folengo
Piazza Lega Lombarda also Piazza Pallone
Andrea
Mantegna Square
Martyrs of Belfiore square
Piazza Guglielmo
Marconi formerly Piazza Purgo
Piazza Giovanni Paccagnini formerly
Piazza Paradiso
Powder Square
St. Francis of Assisi square
San
Giovanni square
San Leonardo square
Santa Barbara Square
Piazza
Adolfo Viterbi
State Archive of Mantua - Via Roberto Ardigò, 11
Mantua municipal
archive - Corso G. Garibaldi, 88 - Piazza B. Aliprandi, 3
Diocesan
historical archive of Mantua - piazza Sordello, 15
Archive of the
Jewish Community of Mantua - via Gilberto Govi, 13
Teresian Library -
Via Roberto Ardigò, 13
Gino Baratta Media Library - Corso Garibaldi,
88
Library of the Mantuan Institute of Contemporary History - Corso
Garibaldi, 88
Library of the Civic Museum of Palazzo Te - Viale Te 13
Library of the Virgilian National Academy - Via Accademia 47
Library
of the Polytechnic University of Milan - Mantua Regional Center - Via
Scarsellini, 15
Bam Foundation Library - Corso Vittorio Emanuele II,
13
Library of the Carlo Poma hospital - Viale Albertoni 1
Research
center on Lombard emigration - Non-profit association of Mantuans in the
world - Via Mazzini 22
Secondary schools:
"Virgilio" high school, classical and
linguistic
"Belfiore" scientific high school
"Enrico Fermi" high
school (technical institute in the technological sector, scientific high
school of applied sciences)
"Isabella d'Este" High School and "Carlo
d'Arco" High School
"Alberto Pitentino" technical and economic
institute
Technical Economic Institute "Andrea Mantegna"
Higher
Education Institute "San Giovanni Bosco" (ex IPSIA "Leonardo da Vinci")
"Bonomi-Mazzolari" high school (state professional institute for
clothing, fashion, commercial, social and tourist services)
"G.Romano" State Art Institute and High School
"Strozzi" higher
education institution
Conservatory of Music "Lucio Campiani"
"Redentore" Institutes (classical, linguistic, scientific and four-year
linguistic high school)
Institutes "Santa Paola" Mantua, founded by
Don Antonio Bottoglia in the sixties
UniverMantova Foundation is, since June 2015, the new denomination of
the Mantua University Foundation, which was established on 20 December
2001, which in turn replaced the Mantua University Consortium, active
from 1992 to 2001. Its main purpose is to promote and manage the
university system in Mantua, made up of degree courses established by
the Milan Polytechnic, the University of Brescia, the University of
Milan, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the University of
Republic of San Marino.
With the 2018-19 academic year, the
master's degree course in conservation and restoration of cultural
heritage of the Santa Paola Mantua Institutes was inaugurated.
Virgilian National Academy of Science, Letters and Arts - via
Accademia
Company for the Ducal Palace of Mantua, founded in 1902 –
via Certosa
International center of art and culture of Palazzo Te –
viale Te
Foundation "Umberto Artioli" Mantua European capital of
entertainment – Largo XXIV Maggio
"Leon Battista Alberti" study
center foundation – Largo XXIV Maggio
"Giuseppe Franchetti" institute
foundation – via Pescheria
"Francesco Campogalliani" Theater Academy
– small theater in Palazzo d'Arco
Jewish Mantua cultural association
– via Gilberto Govi
Mantovana Agricultural Bank Foundation – corso
Vittorio Emanuele II
Mantuan Community Foundation – via Portazzolo
Palazzo Ducale - Mantua Museum Complex - Piazza Sordello
Civic
Museum of Palazzo Te and Egyptian collection Giuseppe Acerbi – viale Te
MACA - Mantua Ancient Collections - Largo XXIV Maggio
National
Archaeological Museum – piazza Castello
Francesco Gonzaga Diocesan
Museum – Piazza Virgiliana
Palazzo d'Arco Museum – Piazza Carlo
d'Arco
Virgilian National Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts – via
Accademia
Roundabout of San Lorenzo – piazza Erbe
Clock Tower and
Museum of Time – piazza Erbe
Mantegna's house – via G. Acerbi
House of Blessed Osanna Andreasi – via Pietro Frattini
Madonna della
Vittoria, former church of Santa Maria della Vittoria – via Claudio
Monteverdi
Jewish Synagogue "Norsa Torrazzo" – via Gilberto Govi
Historical Gallery of the National Fire Brigade – Largo Vigili del Fuoco
Numismatic collection of the Banca Agricola Mantovana Foundation – Corso
Vittorio Emanuele II
Art Gallery of the BAM Foundation – Corso
Vittorio Emanuele II
Gallery "Arte e Arti" - The artistic heritage of
the Chamber of Commerce - via Pier Fortunato Calvi
Gallery Museum of
Palazzo Valenti Gonzaga – via Pietro Frattini
Tazio Nuvolari and
Learco Guerra Museum, former Carmelino church, Via Giulio Romano –
corner via Nazario Sauro
Science Park – viale Mincio
Museum of the
Gazzetta di Mantova – piazza Mozzarelli
In the city
Updated list of events on the Mantova news and Turismo
Mantova website.
Festivaletteratura (Various appointments every
year in September in the historic centre. The places.), ☎ +39 0376
223989, fax: +39 0376 367047, segreteria@festivaletteratura.it. Cultural
event born in 1997, in which meetings with authors, readings, shows,
concerts, artistic installations follow one another.
Signs of
childhood (Various appointments every year in November in the historical
centre), ☎ +39 0376 1511955, info@mantovacomics.it. Artistic event aimed
at children and young people from 18 months to 18 years dedicated to the
world of schools and families.
Mantova Comics & Games, Via Melchiorre
Gioia (Palabam) (Appointment every year in March),
info@mantovacomics.it. Comic fair.
Mantova Jazz Festival (Various
appointments during the year), ☎ +39 349 5904186, info@mantovajazz.it. A
series of concerts in various theaters of the city and the province.
Mantova Chamber Music Festival (Friday 4, Saturday 5 and Sunday 6
September 2020), ☎ +39 0376 368618, info@mantovachamber.com. A series of
concerts at the Doge's Palace, at the Bibiena Theater and at Ca' degli
Uberti, at the Rotonda di San Lorenzo and at the Basilica of Santa
Barbara, for a fee and with free admission.
Sbrisolona & co.
(Festival of Sbrisolona and Italian sweets), Piazza delle Erbe and
Piazza Sordello, ☎ +39 059 643664, info@sbrisolonafestival.it. in
October. Series of events and meetings in the city.
Out of town
I Madonnari, Piazza del Santuario - Grazie di Curtatone (appointment
every year in August).
Sport facilities
1 Danilo Martelli football stadium, Via Te, 7/9,
☎ +39 0376 362626, fax: +39 0376 356373, info@mantovafc.it. Venue for
Mantova Calcio matches.
2 Dugoni swimming center, Viale Monte Grappa,
8, ☎ +39 0376 367572.
3 Canottieri Mincio (Persevering Arrivals), Via
S. Maria Nuova, 15, ☎ +39 0376 391700 , +39 0376 391719, fax: +39 0376
391727, segreteria@canottieri.com. The Rowing Club Mincio Soc. Coop. it
has sports facilities for practicing the following sports: rowing,
tennis, canoeing, sailing, diving and swimming.
4 Campo Canoa
Sparafucile, Lower Lake, Sparafucile, ☎ +39 0376 372824. Mon-Sat
2.30pm-5.30pm. Canoe and Kayak Training and Competition Center.
River navigation
Navigation services on the lakes of Mantua for
naturalistic excursions to discover the flora and fauna:
5 Onlus Park
Association, Portici Broletto 22/a, ☎ +39 0376 225724, fax: +39 0376
225724, perilparco@yahoo.com.
6 Motonavi Andes Negrini, Via San
Giorgio 2 (Embarking in Mantua: Via Lungolago Gonzaga (Lower Lake) and
Ponte dei Mulini (Upper Lake), ☎ +39 0376 360870-322875-224727, fax: +39
0376 322869, andes@motonaviandes .it. Routes: Mantua-River Po and back;
Laghi di Mezzo and Inferiore in Mantua and in the Mincio Park reserve.
Concerts and congresses
7 PALABAM, Via Melchiorre Gioia,3 (Zona
Boma), ☎ +39 0376 220055, fax: +39 0376 366111,
palabammantova@gmail.com. 9:00-13:00 and 15:00-19:00. The Palabam hosts
congresses, conventions, fairs and Expos, concerts, sporting events.
Club
8 Chiringuito, Via Parma, 22, ☎ +39 331 8191010.
By plane
Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto
13, Orio al Serio (BG), ☎ +39 035 326323.
Brescia-Montichiari Airport
(Gabriele D'Annunzio), Via Aeroporto, 34, Montichiari (BS), ☎ +39 030
9656599, fax: +39 030 9656514.
Verona-Villafranca Airport (Valerio
Catullo), Caselle di Sommacampagna (VR), ☎ +39 045 8095666, fax: +39 045
8619074. Daily connection Mantua-Verona Airport with APAM bus; departure
from the railway station and piazza Sordello at 8:30, 12:00, 15:00 and
17:00. From Verona to Mantua: 11:00, 13:00, 16:00 and 19:30.
Parma
Airport (G. Verdi), Via Emilia - Golese, ☎ +39 0521 951511.
Bologna
Airport, Via Triumvirato 84, ☎ +39 051 6479615.
On the train
Mantova station in Piazza don Leoni is located along the Verona Porta
Nuova-Mantova, Modena-Mantova, Milano Centrale-Cremona-Mantova,
Monselice-Mantova routes. Direct trains once a day also from Bologna
Centrale, Parma and Venice Mestre.
Trenord offers season-ticket
holders in possession of an electronic card and customers the
possibility of visiting various cultural realities in the city of Mantua
at discounted prices.
By boat
Embarkation of the Andes Negrini
Motor Ships (Embarkation: Via Lungolago Gonzaga (Lower Lake) and Ponte
dei Mulini (Upper Lake), ☎ +39 0376 360870-322875-224727, fax: +39 0376
322869, andes@motonaviandes.it. Routes: Mantua- Po River and back; Mezzo
and Inferiore lakes in Mantua and in the Mincio Park reserve.
Embarkation of the Andes Negrini Motor Ships (Embarkation in Mantua: Via
Lungolago Gonzaga (Lower Lake) and Ponte dei Mulini (Upper Lake), ☏ +39
0376 360870-322875-224727, fax: +39 0376 322869, andes@motonaviandes.it.
Routes: Mantua-River Po and back; Laghi di Mezzo and Inferiore in Mantua
and in the Mincio Park reserve.
By bus
Bus station, viale
Risorgimento. The connections with the city are made by the APAM company
and by ATV.
The "Nugo" smartphone app allows you to examine the
possible solutions to reach your destination, combining different means
of transport and indicating the duration of the journey and the relative
fare for each one. Through "Nugo" it is possible to buy or book all the
tickets in a single solution. For info: +39 0376 230339. change
By car
From Cremona : (65km) SS10
From Legnago : (45 km) SS10
From Casalmaggiore : (35 km) SS420
From Ferrara : (85 km) SS16 and
SS434
From Verona : (45 km) SP62 and A22
From Modena : (70km) A22
Brennero A22:
Mantova Nord exit (for Mottella di San Giorgio and
Mantova). At 4km. from the centre.
Mantova Sud exit (for San Biagio,
Cerese, Mantova). At 11.5km. from the centre.
Access routes to
the city:
Street of the Mills. For those coming from the north.
Via Legnago. For those coming from the east.
Via Parma. For those
coming from the south.
Via Cremona. For those coming from the West.
Bridges
Ponte di San Giorgio (east of the city). It was built in
wood (1198 - 1199) as part of the hydraulic intervention carried out by
the engineer Alberto Pitentino, who transformed the marshy environment
surrounding the city of Mantua into a complex of lake basins, the
so-called "lakes of Mantua". having the function of protection from
floods and from enemy armies. It was Ludovico III Gonzaga at the end of
the 14th century who built the San Giorgio bridge in masonry, dividing
the stretch of water formed downstream of Lake Superiore by the Mulini
dam-bridge into two, Lago di Mezzo and Lago Inferiore. The bridge of San
Giorgio was later covered up as evidenced by a plaque from 1417
conserved in the museum of Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. The roof will be
demolished in 1634 following the damage suffered in 1630 during the
siege of the Landsknechts. A splendid view of the bridge can be seen in
the background of the painting Death of the Virgin by Andrea Mantegna
from 1462 and kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Ponte dei Mulini
(north of the city). It is a dam-bridge created with other hydraulic
works in order to regulate the waters of the river Mincio which
surrounded the city of Mantua, a frequent cause of floods. This
grandiose project, begun in 1188, was concluded in 1199. . Thus, the
system of four lakes was artificially created, currently three due to
the subsequent silting up of Lake Paiolo, which until the end of the
eighteenth century made Mantua an island easily defensible from enemy
armies. During the Second World War, in 1944, the historic bridge was
destroyed by air raids. The bridge was rebuilt losing the twelve mills
and the covered passage.
Parking lots
free
Canoe field,
Cipata road. free parking. Shuttle: Mon-Sun 7am-9pm. There is a free
9-seater shuttle bus service, arranged by Aster, which connects the
parking area with the historic center of Mantua (Piazza Sordello) and
vice versa. Wait times should be around ten minutes.
Viale Te
(Near Palazzo Te). free parking.
Viale Isonzo (Near Palazzo Te). free
parking.
Viale Risorgimento (Near Palazzo Te). free parking.
Ancona square. free parking.
Piazzale Ragazzi del '99 (Stadium). free
parking.
Piazzale Montelungo (Stadium) (Palazzo Te Parking). free
parking. A free shuttle operated by APAM connects the Palazzo Te car
park and the city center (Corso della Libertà). The service operates
every Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 9.00 to 21.00 and every
Thursday morning from 7.00 to 13.00. Circular service every 10 minutes.
Piazzale Gramsci. free parking.
For a fee
€/hour.
With the
free Tap&Park smartphone app, you can pay for parking without coins.
Piazzale Nodari Pesenti. toll parking.
Gonzaga lakefront. toll
parking.
Piazza Virgiliana (In the historical centre). toll parking.
Piazzale di Porta Cerese (stadium area). toll parking.
Piazzale
Gramsci. toll parking.
Piazza d'Arco (In the historical centre). toll
parking.
Piazza San Giovanni (in the historical centre). toll
parking.
Piazzale Seminario (In the historical centre). toll parking.
Piazza Viterbi (in the historical centre). toll parking.
Apcoa car
park, Via Scarsellini (in the historic centre), ☎ +39 045 596500. paid
parking. For each hour or fraction: €1.50. Maximum daily rate (24h):
€10.00.
Viale Mincio. toll parking. edit
Covered parking
Mazzini car park, via Mazzini 7 (in the historic centre), ☎ +039 0376
321607, info-mazzinipark@interparking.com. Toll parking. For each hour
or part of it: €2.00; maximum daily rate (24h) €13.00.
Quick
Mondadori car park, Largo di Porta Pradella (near the railway station),
☎ +39 081 5542253, mantova@quickparking.it. Toll parking. For each hour
or fraction: €1.50.
Autorimessa Garage Centrale, Corso Vittorio
Emanuele II 59 (In the centre), ☎ +39 0376 221439. Paid parking.
Garage Principe Amedeo, Via Principe Amedeo 4 (In the historical
centre), ☎ +39 0376 328269. Paid parking.
Equipped camper area
Sparafucile car park, Via Legnago 1/A - Mantua (The car park is close to
the historic center of Mantua (it is located 800 m after crossing the S.
Giorgio bridge) and is located in a strategic position. For info: Aster)
. €15.00 for a 24h stop - €10.00 for a 12h stop - €5.00 for a 6h stop.
Open from Friday to Monday, the entry of campers into this parking area
used for them is only allowed between 7:00 and 23:00. In case of frost
the services will be closed! The car park is equipped (with payment by
parking meter), very shaded on flat ground distributed in pitches, and
is able to accommodate 54 campers.
Parco Paganini Grazie di
Curtatone, Via Fiera 11 - Grazie di Curtatone (10 km from Mantua), ☎ +39
331 1126846. 103 pitches of approx. 45 each. Fixed structure, also
accessible to people with disabilities, equipped with showers and
toilets. Info: Mantua Solidarity Camper.
By bike
Mincio cycle
path, connects Mantua to Peschiera del Garda (43.5 km)
Mantua-Sabbioneta cycle path, connects Mantua to Sabbioneta (46 km)
Mantua-Grazie cycle path, connects Mantua to Grazie di Curtatone (8 km)
Mantua Lakes cycle path, route around the Mantua lakes (14 km)
Read
more about getting around by bike on this site.
Here you will
find the complete map of the cycle paths.
The easiest way to visit the historic center of Mantua is on foot,
since it is quite small and mostly in a pedestrian area. The bicycle is
especially useful if you want to leave the center to go to the suburbs.
By car
Car rental
Car rental Polato, Piazza San Giovanni 4, ☎
+36 0376 323824.
AVIS-Mantova car rental, Strada Dosso Del Corso 1, ☎
+36 0376 371735.
Hertz, Via Verri 11, ☎ +36 0376 248830, fax: +39
0376 248828.
By public transport
Bus
APAM Info Ticket
Office, Piazza don Leoni (FS Station), ☎ +39 0376 230346. Monday to
Friday: 7.30 - 17.45, Saturday: 7.30 - 12.45.
APAM Info Ticket
Office, Corso della Libertà 17. Monday to Friday from 8.00 to 13.30 and
from 14.30 to 17.00.
The public transport service is managed by
APAM and develops over nine lines that form a transport network divided
into two zones: zone A (city of Mantua) and zone B (the Municipalities
of the urban area: Porto Mantovano, Virgilio, Curtatone and San Giorgio
Bigarello).
CC line: city circular
Line 4: Due Pini -
Lunetta/Virgiliana/Tripoli
Line 5: Verzellotto - Angeli- Valsecchi -
Hospital
Line 6: Buscoldo - Formigosa
Line 7: Hospital - Libertà
open road/Bancole est/M.Carra
Line 8: Bancole Sgarzari - Cappelletta
Line 9: Mantova - Montanara
Line 11: Mantova - Ospedale - Levata -
S.Silvestro
Line 12: Emanuele - Lunetta - Boma
Line tickets
can be purchased:
at vending machines in the city: Piazza don Leoni
through station (opposite side of the railway station); Viale
Risorgimento through station (external waiting room); in Via Avis (in
front of the old hospital entrance); in Corso della Libertà (on the two
opposite sides); in C.so Vittorio Emanuele (near the terminus shelter)
on board the bus (one-way tickets with a €2 surcharge). Urban tariffs
at APAM Info Ticket Office in Piazza Don Leoni and Corso della Libertà
17
the automatic ticket machine in Piazza don Leoni
APAM
authorized points of sale
with "Mobile Ticket": the 75-minute A+B
urban ticket can be purchased with a text message to 4850201 or with the
APAM Mobile app.
With Bicibus
Bicibus, ☎ +39 0376 230339. from
April to October on line 46 Mantova–Peschiera every Sunday and on public
holidays. For groups of more than 8 people, the Bicibus can also be
booked on weekdays. It is an APAM service that connects Mantua (viale
Risorgimento through station, IPSIA Borgochiesanuova stop or piazza Don
Leoni stop) to Peschiera del Garda (via Caduti delle Foibe) for all
lovers of cycling and cycling enthusiasts. tourism. It is possible to
bring your own bicycle thanks to a special trolley pulled by buses,
which contains up to 35 vehicles. Active service by reservation (minimum
8 participants). There are also stops in Pozzolo (via Boschi –
Pantificio) and Valeggio sul Mincio (p.le Vittorio Veneto). Attention:
it is necessary to arrive at the stop to load the bicycle at least 15
minutes in advance.
Free shuttle buses
Canoe field. free.
Mon-Sun 7am-9pm. Departure from Campo Canoa and arrival in Piazza
Sordello and vice versa every 15 minutes.
Canoe camp for the disabled
(with telephone booking) (number of people on board: 1 disabled person +
1 companion), ☎ +39 338 3592688 (at least 30 minutes before). free.
Mon-Sun 7am-9pm.
Palazzo Te park. free. Sat-Sun and holidays
9:00-21:00, Thu 7:00-13:00. Departure from via Calvi 38, arrival at the
Palazzo Te parking lot, and vice versa, every 15 minutes.
By taxi
Radiotaxi Mantova, ☎ +39 0376 368844. 05:00-01:00.
Taxi train
station, Piazza don Leoni, ☎ +39 0376 325351. 05:00-01:00.
Piazza
Cavallotti Taxi, Piazza Felice Cavallotti, ☎ +39 0376 324407.
07:00-20:00.
Piazza Sordello Taxi, Piazza Sordello, ☎ +39 0376
324408. 07:00-20:00.
Taxi Carlo Poma Hospital, Strada lago Paiolo, ☎
+39 0376 362491. 07:00-20:00.
By bike
Numerous bike routes in
the city.
Lakes of Mantua cycle path
Mincio cycle path
Bikes
Bike Sharing (Stations: Railway Station/Piazza Don Leoni; Porta
Cerese/Piazzale Porta Cerese; Campo Canoa; Castiglioni/Via Castiglioni;
Anconetta/Piazza Anconetta; Umberto I°/Corso Umberto I°/; Museums/Piazza
Vittorio Veneto 10 (being activated); San Giorgio/Via San Giorgio 20
(being activated)). buy a pass which consists of issuing an electronic
card or download the Bicincittà App. The first half hour is always free,
the following hours cost €0.50/hour. The user can choose between three
types of subscription: 1) annual subscription (€20 with €5 for the first
top-up); 2) 4FORYOU subscription (€ 7.00 for 24 hours of validity and
includes 4 hours of consecutive use of the bike); 3) 8FORYOU
subscription (€ 12 for 48 hours of validity and includes 8 hours of
consecutive use of the bike. How to access the service:
By
purchasing the season ticket online on the Bicincittà website
By
purchasing a season ticket from an authorized reseller: Aster Mantova
office - via Imre Nagy 2/4/6 - Mon-Fri 8:00-12:30, Sat 8:00-12:00 /
Aster San Giorgio office - via San Giorgio 20 - Mon-Fri 8:00-12:30, Sat
8:00-12:00 / Palazzo San Sebastiano - Largo XXIV Maggio - Mon 8:00-13:00
Tue-Sun 9:00-18:00 / Infopoint Casa of Rigoletto - piazza Sordello 23 -
Mon-Sun 9:00-19:00
By downloading the "Bicincittà" App, a route valid
only for credit card holders.
Further info: Aster - +39 0376 263370.
Bikexperience (Biciglill Mantova), ☎ +39 338 1208689,
info@mantovabikexperience.com. Delivery at La Zanzara, on the shore of
Lake Superior.
Standing
Pedestrian streets in the historic
centre:
Via Pescherie
Via Orefici
Via Goito
Piazza delle
Erbe
Via Broletto
Broletto square
Verdi street
Via della
Mainolda
Canossa Square
Via Umberto I
Via Rome
Via Ippolito
Nievo
Pedestrian Itinerary Through Mantua's Historic Heart
This relaxing
walking route explores the vibrant pedestrian zone in the heart of
Mantua's historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage site steeped in
Renaissance splendor and Gonzaga family legacy. The compact layout makes
it ideal for a peaceful stroll, allowing you to soak in the medieval and
Renaissance architecture, lively squares, and artistic treasures.
Begin in Piazza Mantegna, dominated by the magnificent Basilica of
Sant'Andrea — a Renaissance masterpiece designed by Leon Battista
Alberti, famous for its grand dome and interior housing works by artists
like Correggio and Mantegna.
A short walk away lies Piazza delle Erbe
(the Herb Market Square), the bustling medieval commercial hub. On the
left, elegant arcades invite you to browse or pause for a coffee. On the
right, admire the striking Rotonda di San Lorenzo (an 11th-century
Romanesque round church), the ornate Clock Tower, the imposing Palazzo
della Ragione (once the seat of justice), and the Palazzo del Podestà.
Just below, Piazza Broletto features a graceful circular fountain and
the enthroned statue of Virgil (the ancient Roman poet born near
Mantua), positioned dramatically against the backdrop of the Palazzo del
Podestà.
Continue a short distance to the left, where the Torre della
Gabbia (Cage Tower) stands — a medieval tower once used to publicly
display prisoners in an iron cage hanging from its side, a grim reminder
of historical justice. Passing through the Voltone di San Pietro
archway, you reach Piazza Sordello, the true epicenter of the old city.
This grand square is surrounded by key landmarks: the expansive Palazzo
Ducale (Ducal Palace, a sprawling complex of over 500 rooms serving as
the Gonzaga residence), the Cathedral (Cattedrale di San Pietro,
blending Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque styles), Palazzo Bonacolsi, and
the Palazzo Vescovile (Bishop's Palace).
The route concludes at
Piazza Castello, home to the Basilica of Santa Barbara (the Gonzaga's
private chapel) and the majestic Castle of San Giorgio. Inside the
castle's north tower lies the world-famous Camera degli Sposi ("Bridal
Chamber" or "Painted Chamber"), Andrea Mantegna's 1465–1474 fresco
masterpiece. These illusionistic paintings create a breathtaking
trompe-l'œil effect, depicting the Gonzaga court with lifelike
portraits, landscapes, and a famous oculus ceiling that opens
dramatically to the sky — a pinnacle of Renaissance art and political
propaganda.
Optional Extension: Artistic Route to Palazzo Te
This first itinerary pairs beautifully with a second, slightly longer
pedestrian path that starts from the historic center and leads to
Palazzo Te, one of Mantua's greatest artistic gems. Designed by Giulio
Romano in the 16th century as a suburban villa for Federico II Gonzaga,
it features spectacular frescoes (including the dramatic Sala dei
Giganti — Room of the Giants) and lush gardens.
From Piazza Sordello,
head along Via dell'Accademia to the elegant Teatro Scientifico (also
known as the Bibiena Theatre), a late-Baroque jewel designed by Antonio
Galli Bibiena in 1767–69. It once hosted a young Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart.
Turn onto Via Pomponazzo to admire the Palazzo della Finanza
and Palazzo Sordi. Along Corso Garibaldi, pass the former home of
architect Giovan Battista Bertani, who worked for the Gonzaga court.
Continue to Via Gradaro for the Church of Santa Maria del Gradaro, then
take Via Isonzo (leaving the football stadium on your left) to reach
Palazzo Te.
For the return to the center, follow Via Acerbi, where
you'll find the Casa del Mantegna (the house Andrea Mantegna designed
and lived in, featuring a distinctive circular courtyard inspired by
classical architecture). Nearby stands the Palace of Justice and the
House of Giulio Romano (another Renaissance architect and painter). Via
Giovanni Chiassi leads to Via Pescheria, with the striking Pescherie
(fish market building) designed by Giulio Romano and scenic views over
the Rio canal.
Additional worthwhile detours on the return include
Corso della Libertà with the Teatro Sociale, Via Marangoni and the
Church of San Francesco, the Palazzo d'Arco in its namesake square, and
the peaceful green space of Piazza Virgiliana park, centered around
another statue of the poet Virgil.
The Street of the Prince
(Percorso del Principe)
This scenic itinerary winds through the city,
linking its two symbolic extremes: the grand palaces of the historic
center and the suburban Palazzo Te. It retraces the historic route once
used by the powerful Gonzaga lords as they traveled from their urban
residences to their lavish pleasure palace outside the city walls — a
path that perfectly embodies Mantua's Renaissance grandeur, blending
architecture, history, and the surrounding lakeside landscape.
Mantua offers plenty of convenient shopping options for daily needs
and popular brands, with numerous stores concentrated in the city center
and semi-central areas that cover everything from fashion and
accessories to everyday essentials.
Historic Center Shopping Streets
The charming streets of Mantua's historic center are perfect for a
pleasant shopping stroll, blending elegant architecture with a mix of
international chains and local boutiques:
Corso Umberto I — This
is the main pedestrian shopping artery in Mantua, often bustling with
shoppers. It features a wide selection of well-known brands, including:
DoppelGanger, Foot Locker, Wind3, Stradivarius, Numio, Set Uomo, Phonup,
Marella, Intimissimi, Tezenis, Luisa Spagnoli, Max Mara, Pinko,
Intimissimi Uomo, Naturhouse, O Bag Store, and Kiko.
It's ideal for
fashion, footwear, lingerie, cosmetics, and tech accessories.
Piazza
Marconi
Via Roma
Via Orefici
Via Broletto
Via Verdi
These streets form a compact network where you can easily move between
shops while enjoying the historic surroundings.
Shopping Centers
For more comprehensive shopping under one roof (especially useful in bad
weather or for larger purchases), Mantua and its immediate surroundings
have several modern shopping centers:
La Favorita Shopping Centre
Address: Piazzale C. Beccaria (easy access via A22 Mantova Nord exit).
Phone: +39 0376 248948 | Email: infopoint@centrolafavorita.it
This
well-established center includes the large Ipercoop hypermarket for
groceries and household items, along with dozens of other shops, bars,
and restaurants. It has been recently restyled for a more modern and
pleasant experience, making it a popular one-stop destination.
Virgilio Shopping Center
Address: Piazzale Commercio 1, Borgo
Virgilio (south of the city).
Phone: +39 0376 280450 | Email:
info@centrovirgilio.it
Opened in 1992 and renovated in 2017, this
family-friendly center offers convenient, quality shopping in a
welcoming atmosphere with a good variety of stores.
Quattroventi
Shopping Center (also known as Il Gigante Quattroventi)
Location:
State Road 10 (SS10) toward Cremona, in Curtatone.
This large retail
complex features the Il Gigante hypermarket and various clothing and
accessory shops, with ample free parking (including covered spots) —
perfect for a quick stop on the way in or out of the city.
Fashion
District Mantova Outlet Village (also called Mantova Village)
Address: Via M. Biagi, Bagnolo San Vito (about 11 km from Mantua
center).
Easy access via A22 Mantova Sud exit.
Phone: +39 0376
25041 | Fax: +39 0376 253397 | Email: info@mantovaoutlet.it
Opening
hours: Monday to Sunday, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM.
This open-air outlet
village (with over 100 boutiques) offers significant discounts (often
30–70% off) on major fashion brands for men, women, and children, plus
sportswear and casual labels. It includes a few restaurants and cafés,
creating a pleasant "village" atmosphere inspired by historic Italian
hamlets. Check the official website for the full, up-to-date list of
stores and current promotions.
Markets
Mantua’s vibrant
markets provide fresh, local, and affordable options with a lively
atmosphere:
Weekly City Market (every Thursday morning)
Stalls
fill the historic center squares and streets — from Via Spagnoli to
Piazza Sordello and surrounding areas. You'll find a huge variety:
clothing, accessories, household items, flowers, plants, and plenty of
fresh foodstuffs. It's a classic Italian market experience not to miss
if you're in town on a Thursday.
Farmer’s Market (Mercato Contadino)
(every Saturday morning)
Location: Lungorio area (Lungorio IV
Novembre), near Piazza Martiri di Belfiore (close to the post office).
This popular market offers fresh, local, zero-km products directly from
regional producers: seasonal fruit and vegetables, cheeses, meats, jams,
essential oils, plants, and flowers. It's a great spot for high-quality
agri-food specialties.
Antiques and Curiosities Market (every third
Sunday of the month)
Location: Piazza Sordello.
Hours: 9:00 AM –
6:00 PM.
Around 60 exhibitors set up stalls with small antiques,
vintage items, collectibles, and curiosities. It's a fixed monthly
appointment loved by collectors and browsers alike, set in one of
Mantua’s most beautiful historic squares.
Cinema
Mantova offers several modern and well-equipped cinemas for
movie lovers:
Cinema Cinecity Mantova
Piazzale Cesare Beccaria, 5
(inside La Favorita Shopping Center)
☎ +39 0376 340740
Ariston
Multiplex
Via Principe Amedeo, 20
☎ +39 0376 328139
Cinema
Mignon
Via Benzoni 22
☎ +39 0376 366233 | cinemamignon@gmail.com
Starplex Multiplex
Via Montanelli, Curtatone (inside Quattro Venti
Shopping Centre)
☎ +39 0376 348395
Theaters
Mantova boasts
a rich theatrical tradition with historic and cultural venues:
Teatro
Bibiena
Via Accademia, 47
☎ +39 0376 327653 |
info@infopointmantova.it
Admission: Full price €2.00 | Reduced price
€1.20
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday: 10:00–13:00 and 15:00–18:00.
Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays: 10:00–18:00.
Note: The theater
may be closed to visitors during conferences or ongoing performances.
Ticket office closes at 17:30.
This beautiful historic theater was
designed and built by Antonio Bibbiena between 1767 and 1769. Its
elegant neoclassical façade was added in 1773 by the renowned architect
Giuseppe Piermarini.
Teatro Sociale
Piazza Cavallotti, 14A
☎
+39 0376 197 4836
Auditorium Claudio Monteverdi
Via della
Conciliazione, 33 – 46100 Mantova (inside Conservatorio di Musica di
Mantova)
☏ +39 0376 324636 | Fax: +39 0376 223202 |
segreteria@conservatoriomantova.com
This intimate auditorium, named
after the famous Mantuan composer Claudio Monteverdi, features over 180
seats and regularly hosts concerts, conferences, and cultural meetings.
Nightclubs & Music Venues
Mascara
Viale della Favorita 17
☎
+39 0376 391467
Gusto Musical Restaurant
Via Melchiorre Gioia, 3
☎ +39 393 9253297
(A popular spot combining live music, dining, and a
lively atmosphere)
Bowling
Bowling Mantova
Via Don Grioli
23, Cerese di Virgilio
☎ +39 0376 440189
Wine Bars
Buca
Della Gabbia
Via Cavour, 98
☎ +39 345 6336101
Porto Catena
Enoteca
Via Pomponazzo, 9
☎ +39 391 4324838
Pubs
Doolin
Irish Pub
Via G. Zambelli, 8
☎ +39 0376 362563
Pub Chez Vous
Via Tezze, 4
☎ +39 0376 321376
Signature Mantuan Dishes
Here are some of the most typical and
beloved dishes you’ll find:
Coppa and Mantuan salami — flavorful
cured meats that make an excellent antipasto, often enjoyed with a glass
of local red wine.
Pumpkin tortelli (tortelli di zucca) — the iconic
stuffed pasta filled with sweet Mantuan pumpkin, amaretti biscuits,
mostarda (spicy fruit preserve), Parmesan, and nutmeg, usually served
with melted butter and sage. It’s a festive favorite, especially around
Christmas.
Risotto alla pilota (pilot risotto) — a rustic rice dish
named after the “piloti” (rice workers), featuring pork sausage
(salamella), butter, onion, and Parmesan, traditionally shaped into a
pyramid on the plate.
Risotto with saltaréi — another local rice
preparation, often with peas or other seasonal ingredients.
Agnolini
in brodo (or similar broth-based pastas) — small stuffed pasta served in
rich meat broth.
Donkey stew (stracotto d’asino) with polenta — a
slow-cooked, tender meat stew simmered with wine, vegetables, and
spices.
Pike in salsa (luccio in salsa) with polenta — freshwater
pike prepared in a tangy sauce, a classic river-fish dish.
Desserts:
Sbrisolona cake — a crumbly, buttery almond cake that’s perfect for
breaking apart by hand.
Elvezia cake — an elegant layered cake with a
Swiss-origin recipe dating back to the 18th century.
Noodles cake
(torta di tagliatelle) — a sweet pie made with tagliatelle pasta,
almonds, and lemon.
Bignolata — small cream-filled pastries or
similar fried sweets.
All of these pair beautifully with Mantuan
wines, such as Lambrusco Mantovano (sparkling and refreshing) or other
local reds and whites that complement the region’s flavors.
Recommended Places to Eat in Mantua
Mantua offers a wide range of
dining options, from quick and affordable bites to traditional osterias
and full restaurants serving authentic local cuisine.
Modest
Prices (Budget-friendly options)
Bigoleria Al Torchio — Via Solferino
e San Martino 31 (near the railway station). Specializes in bigoli
pasta. ☎ +39 348 0466563.
Contadinostrano Ciapa and Porta a cà — Via
Orefici, 18 (in the historical centre). ☎ +39 0376 1961484.
La
Bottega della pizza — Via Fabio Filzi, 6 (in the centre). Great for
pizza. ☎ +39 331 7255655.
La Piadineria — Via Giovanni Battista
Spagnoli, 18 (in the historical centre). Fresh piadine. ☎ +39 0376
288231.
Osteria Le Quattro Tette — Vicolo Nazione, 4 (central area).
☎ +39 0376 3329478.
La Bottega di Paolo restaurant — Via Accademia 56
(in the historic centre). ☏ +39 0376 364344.
Zzino Tramezzino — Via
Principe Amedeo, 13A (central area). Excellent for snacks and
tramezzini. ☎ +39 346 6606413.
McDonald's Mantua — Via Legnago 10
(suburban area). Sun-Thu 07:00-23:00; Fri-Sat 07:00-00:00. Features
McDrive and McCafé. ☎ +39 0376 1906594.
Burger King San Giorgio di
Mantova — Via del Commercio (suburbs, near A22 Mantova Nord exit, about
8 km from the centre). Mon-Sun 11:00-22:00. Offers King Drive, parking,
Play King area, WiFi, and party services. ☎ +39 0376 374547.
Average Prices (Traditional and mid-range spots)
Antica Osteria Ai
Ranari — Via Trieste, 11 (semi-central). ☎ +39 0376 328431. Email:
info@ranari.it.
Antica Osteria Fragoletta — Piazza Arche, 5
(semi-central). Family-run with fresh homemade pasta. ☎ +39 0376 323300.
Email: info@fragoletta.it.
Hosteria Leon d'Oro — Via Leon d'Oro, 6
(historical centre). ☎ +39 338 1242111. Email:
info@hosterialeondoro.net.
Osteria dell'Oca — Via Trieste, 10
(semi-central). Popular for classic Mantuan dishes. ☎ +39 0376 327171.
Email: osteriadelloca2012@libero.it.
Pizzeria La Mamma — Via Leopoldo
Camillo Volta, 2 (near Palazzo Te). ☎ +39 0376 324500. Email:
info@pizzerialamamma.it.
Pizzeria Ristorante Marechiaro — Largo XXIV
Maggio, 7 (Palazzo Te area). ☎ +39 0376 363526. Email:
info@ristorantemarechiaromantova.it.
Cento Rampini Restaurant —
Piazza delle Erbe 11 (historical centre). ☏ +39 0376 366349. Email:
100.rampini@libero.it.
Grifone Bianco Restaurant — Piazza delle Erbe,
6 (historic centre). ☎ +39 0376 365423.
Masseria Restaurant — Piazza
Broletto, 8 (historical centre). ☎ +39 0376 365303. Email:
info@ristorantemasseria.it.
Ristorante Pizzeria Al Quadrato — Piazza
Virgiliana, 49 (historical centre). ☎ +39 0376 368896.
Ristorante
Pizzeria Valentina — Strada Castelletto, 63 - Castelletto Borgo
(suburban). ☎ +39 0376 302131. Email:
info@ristorantepizzeriavalentina.com.
Trattoria 2 Cavallini — Via
Salnitro 5 (semi-central). ☎ +39 0376 322084. Email:
info@trattoriaduecavallinimantova.it.
Trattoria La Stella — Via della
Libertà 129 - Soave di Porto Mantovano (suburban). ☎ +39 0376 300635.
Email: trattorialastellasoave@gmail.com.
Roadhouse Restaurant Mantova
— Piazzale Aldo Levoni 11 (suburban). Sun-Thu 12:00-14:30 & 18:30-22:00;
Fri-Sat 12:00-14:30 & 18:30-22:30. ☏ +39 0376 248185.
High-End /
Fine Dining Restaurants (Higher Price Range)
La Lampara — Strada
Dosso del Corso, 13 (suburban area) • ☎ +39 333 9258945
A popular
seafood and fish restaurant specializing in fresh fish, crustaceans, and
traditional Italian seafood dishes. Ideal for lovers of grilled fish,
crudi (raw preparations), and generous portions of ocean flavors.
Lo
Scalco Grasso Osteria Contemporanea — Via Trieste, 55 (semi-central
area) • ☎ +39 349 3747958
A modern osteria that creatively blends
classic Mantuan flavors with contemporary techniques. Expect innovative
twists on local ingredients in a relaxed yet refined setting.
Aquila
Nigra Restaurant — Vicolo Bonacolsi, 4 (historical centre) • ☎ +39 0376
327180 • Fax: +39 0376 226490 • informazioni@aquilanigra.it
An
elegant, traditional fine-dining restaurant housed in a historic
building near Palazzo Ducale. Renowned for refined Mantuan cuisine
inspired by Gonzaga court recipes, including homemade pastas like
pumpkin tortelli, with an excellent wine list.
Carlo Govi Restaurant
— Via Gorizia 13/b (semi-central area) • ☎ +39 0376 355133 •
info@carlogoviristorante.it
A welcoming spot that celebrates ancient
Gonzaga gastronomic traditions. It features a pleasant garden for summer
dining and offers classic Mantuan dishes in a relaxed atmosphere.
Il
Cigno Restaurant (Trattoria dei Martini) — Piazza d'Arco, 1 (historical
centre) • ☎ +39 0376 327101 • ristorantecigno@virgilio.it
A
long-standing institution in Mantua, family-run with passion for
generations. It masterfully interprets the “cuisine of princes and
people,” serving refined yet hearty traditional Mantuan specialties,
including excellent local wines and an inviting outdoor area.
Taverna
del 500 — Via Bertani 78 (semi-central area) • ☎ +39 0376 327772 •
info@tavernacinquecento.it
A cozy tavern with a warm, informal vibe,
perfect for enjoying authentic local flavors in a relaxed setting.
Corkscrew — Piazza L.B. Alberti 30 (historical centre) • ☎ +39 0376
322366
A charming enoteca-style spot ideal for wine lovers, offering
good food pairings in the heart of the old town.
Ethnic
Restaurants
Asmita — Vicolo San Gervasio, 13 (semi-central area)
Authentic Indian cuisine, serving classic curries, tandoori dishes, and
flavorful vegetarian options.
Nuova Cina — Via Montegrappa, 10
(suburbs) • ☎ +39 0376 327439
Traditional Chinese restaurant offering
a wide range of Cantonese and Szechuan favorites.
Orient Sushi
Restaurant — Via Cisa, 27 – Cerese di Virgilio (suburban area) • ☏ +39
0376 448862
Japanese cuisine with a focus on fresh sushi and other
classic Japanese dishes.
Osaka Japan Sushi — Corso Garibaldi, 157
(semi-central area) • ☎ +39 0376 365485
Popular spot for high-quality
Japanese sushi and sashimi in a convenient location.
Beijing Chinese
Restaurant — Strada Cipata, 41 (suburban area) • ☎ +39 0376 374863
Reliable Chinese cuisine with a broad menu of traditional dishes.
Zushi Japanese Restaurant — Corso della Libertà, 8 (central area) • ☎
+39 0376 364463
Modern Japanese restaurant specializing in fresh
sushi, poke bowls, sashimi, and other Japanese specialties.
Ice
Cream Shops (Gelaterie)
Pappa Reale — Via G. Chiassi, 90 (central
area) • ☏ +39 0376 261517
A beloved local gelateria known for its
creamy, high-quality artisanal ice creams.
Patisseries
(Pasticcerie)
Pasticceria Antoniazzi / Bar Borsa — Corso della
Libertà (central area) • ☎ +39 0376 225818
Historic pastry shop and
café offering classic Italian sweets, pastries, and coffee.
Pasticceria Bignè d'oro — Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 62 (central area) •
☏ +39 0376 325425
Renowned for its golden bignè (cream puffs) and a
variety of elegant pastries.
Pasticceria Cavour — Via Cavour 69
(historical centre) • ☎ +39 0376 363597
Traditional patisserie in the
heart of the old town, perfect for cakes and daily treats.
Pasticceria La Tur dal Sucar — Via S. Longino 3 (historical centre) • ☎
+39 0376 322320
A charming historic pastry shop using natural
ingredients and ancient recipes to create authentic Mantuan biscuits,
cakes, and croissants with genuine passion.
Pavesi Bakery — Via
Broletto 19 (historical centre) • ☏ +39 0376 322460
Traditional
bakery specializing in fresh bread, baked goods, and local specialties.
Tourist Tax in Mantua
Since January 1, 2018, the city of Mantua
(Mantova) has implemented a tourist tax (known locally as imposta di
soggiorno). This fee is charged per person, per overnight stay, and
helps fund tourism-related initiatives, such as the maintenance and
promotion of the city's rich cultural heritage, events, and visitor
services. The exact amount varies according to the type and category of
accommodation (for example, higher for luxury hotels and lower for basic
B&Bs or campsites). It is typically collected by the accommodation
provider at checkout and must be paid directly by guests. For the most
up-to-date rates and exemptions (which may include children under a
certain age or specific circumstances), refer to the official flyer or
the Comune di Mantova website.
Budget-Friendly Options (Modest
Prices)
These are more affordable accommodations, ideal for travelers
seeking good value without sacrificing basic comfort:
Hotel
Meublè Abatjour — A simple 1-star hotel located in the suburban area of
Belfiore (Via Cremona 27 int. 10). It offers clean, air-conditioned
rooms with private bathrooms and free WiFi, and is well-connected by
public transport to the historic center.
☎ +39 0376 380373 |
info@abatjourmantova.it
B&B Casa Casari — A charming, family-run bed
& breakfast in a historic building (once linked to the Gonzaga family)
with a peaceful internal garden view. It sits in the semi-central area
(Via Isabella d'Este 29) and features just a few cozy rooms with private
bathrooms and air conditioning.
☎ +39 340 9623365 |
info@casacasari.com
B&B La Ventana — Centrally located in the heart
of Mantua (Via XX Settembre 31), this small B&B provides a convenient
base for exploring the city's main attractions on foot.
☎ +39 329
7140394 | bblaventana@gmail.com
Mid-Range Options (Average
Prices)
These hotels offer a good balance of comfort, location, and
services for most visitors:
Hotel ABC (now part of Mantegna
Hotels) — Conveniently situated right opposite the railway station
(Piazza Don Leoni 25), making it excellent for arrivals by train or bus.
☎ +39 0376 322329 | Fax: +39 0376 310303 | info@hotelabcmantova.it
Hotel Bianchi — Also directly across from the train station (Piazza Don
Leoni 24), offering straightforward accommodations with easy access to
public transport.
☎ +39 0376 321504 | Fax: +39 0376 321504 |
info@albergobianchi.com
Hotel Broletto — Located in the historic
centre (Via Accademia 1), perfect for those who want to immerse
themselves in Mantua’s Renaissance atmosphere.
☎ +39 0376 221297 |
Fax: +39 0376 221297 | info@hotelbroletto.it
Hotel Dante Residence —
A residence-style option in the suburban area (Via Agazzi 9), suitable
for longer stays.
☎ +39 0376 326425
Hotel Dei Gonzaga — Set in the
historic centre on the elegant Piazza Sordello 52, near major landmarks
like the Ducal Palace.
☎ +39 0376 321533 |
info@mantovawelcomesyou.com
Hotel Italia — In the central area
(Piazza Cavallotti 8), within walking distance of shops and sights.
☎
+39 0376 322609 | hotel.italia@tin.it
Hotel Mantegna Meublé —
Centrally positioned (Via Filzi 10), offering practical rooms close to
the action.
☎ +39 0376 328019 | direzione@hotelmantegna.it
Hotel
Rechigi — Another central choice (Via Calvi 30) with a convenient
location for sightseeing.
☎ +39 0376 320781 | info@rechigi.com
Luxury and Higher-End Options (High Prices)
These properties
provide upscale experiences, often in historic or elegant settings:
Hotel Abacus — Located in Porto Mantovano (Strada Martorelli 92/94),
about 2 km from the historic centre.
☎ +39 0376 392903 |
abacus@hotelmantova.it
Hotel Antica Dimora — In the central area
along the elegant Corso Vittorio Emanuele 89.
☎ +39 0376 325002 |
info@anticadimoramantovana.it
Palazzo Castiglioni Luxury Suites (also
known as Palazzo Bonacolsi) — Exclusive suites in a beautiful
period/historic building right in the heart of the historic centre
(Piazza Sordello 12). Ideal for a romantic or luxurious stay.
☎ +39
338 1824408 | palazzocastiglionimantova@gmail.com
Hotel Casa Poli —
Situated in the semi-central area (Via Garibaldi 30), blending comfort
with a good location.
☎ +39 0376 288170 | Fax: +39 0376 362766 |
info@hotelcasapoli.com
Hotel La Favorita — About 2 km from the
historic centre (Via S. Cognetti de Martiis 1), offering a quieter, more
spacious setting.
☎ +39 0376 254711 | info@hotellafavorita.it
Camping Option
Mantua Camping Corte Oppietti — A campsite located
further out in Gazzuolo (Strada Spineda 14, along Provincial Road 61),
approximately 22 km from Mantua. Suitable for budget travelers with
tents, campers, or caravans who prefer a natural environment.
☎ +39
347 9758311
Visiting the city of Mantua and its center in particular is generally
considered safe. The center is patrolled day and night by the police and
there are video surveillance cameras in the municipality; however, it is
better to avoid the darker areas of public parks at night.
When
visiting the stalls during the market and in general in the midst of
crowded events, the necessary attention should be paid to your purse and
wallet, as these situations attract pickpockets.
In case of
emergency you can call the following numbers (here a list):
Single European emergency number 112, ☎ 112.
Police, Via Chiassi 26,
☎ +39 0376 4651.
Anti-Violence Centre, ☎ +39 349 9011590.
Red
Cross, ☎ +39 0376 262626.
Green Cross, ☎ +39 0376 366666.
Al Pozzo
Pharmacy, Via Corridoni 30.
S. Lucia Pharmacy, Via XX Settembre 34.
Al Moro Pharmacy, Piazza Cavallotti 12.
Guardia di Finanza, ☎ +39
0376 322770.
Animal guards, ☎ +39 338 1209509.
State Police,
Piazza Sordello 46, ☎ +39 0376 2051.
local police, ☎ +39 0376 338888.
Traffic Police, Piazza Virgiliana 27, ☎ +39 0376 330611.
Veterinary
Service, ☎ +39 0376 334505.
Telephone Friend, ☎ +39 0376 771708.
Telephone Blue, ☎ +39 0376 19696.
Telephone Rosa, ☎ +39 0376 225656.
Fire Brigade 81 Fire Brigade, Viale Risorgimento 16, ☎ +39 0376 22771.
Health
ASL Val Padana, Via dei Toscani, 1, ☎ +39 0376 3341.
Emergency medical service (Continuity of Care Service), ☎ 800 533167.
Mon-Sun 20:00-8:00.
Ambulance Emergency Port, Piazza Marinai, 1 -
Porto Mantovano, ☎ +39 0376 396000, fax: +39 0376 396414,
info@portoeducazione.com. Emergency interventions and remote assistance,
coordinated directly by the 118 of Mantua.
Carlo Poma Hospital
Emergency Room, Strada Lago Paiolo 10 (Carlo Poma Hospital), ☎ +39 0376
201404, ☎ 118, segreteria.ps.mantova@asst-mantova.it.
San Clemente
Nursing Home, Via Pompilio, 65, ☎ +39 0376 2071
Location and Regional Context
Mantua lies at 45°9′23″N 10°47′30″E,
with an average elevation of just 19 m (62 ft) above sea level. It
occupies the eastern part of Lombardy, roughly halfway between Milan (to
the west) and Venice (to the east). Key nearby cities include Verona
(about 50 km north), Cremona (east), Parma (southwest), and Ferrara
(southeast).
The city forms part of a broader fluvial network in the
Po Valley, a vast, low-lying plain shaped by sediment deposited by
rivers draining the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the south.
The surrounding Province of Mantua spans approximately 2,340 km² and is
bounded by major rivers: the Oglio River to the west (bordering Cremona
province), the Po River to the south (separating it from provinces in
Emilia-Romagna), and sections of the Mincio to the east (with Verona and
Rovigo). This riverine framing contributes to the province’s
predominantly flat terrain and vulnerability to flooding, with levees
along the Po.
Topography
The immediate topography around
Mantua is exceptionally flat, typical of the central Po Plain’s alluvial
deposits—fine sands, silts, and clays that create highly fertile
agricultural soils. Elevation changes are minimal, with the city itself
on a slight natural rise that was enhanced by human engineering.
To
the north in the Province of Mantua (Upper Mantua or Alto Mantovano),
the landscape transitions to gentle moraine hills and sub-hill areas.
These glacial deposits from the last Ice Age create a more undulating
terrain with gravelly high plains, contrasting the flat plateau between
the Mincio and Oglio rivers to the southwest. Southward, the terrain
remains lowland and slopes gently eastward toward the Po.
The city’s
historic core occupies a peninsula-like landform created by the lakes,
giving it a distinctive “city on water” appearance despite being inland.
Hydrology: The Mincio River and Artificial Lakes
The defining
geographical feature is the Mincio River, a 75-km tributary of the Po
that originates from Lake Garda (about 65 km north). In the late 12th
century (around 1198), engineer Alberto Pitentino redirected and widened
the Mincio’s course to create a sophisticated defensive system of four
artificial lakes around Mantua. These served as a moat-like barrier,
flood control, and water management feature.
Three lakes remain
today, surrounding the city on three sides and fed directly by the
Mincio:
Lago Superiore (Upper Lake): The largest, expansive and
scenic, known for its aquatic vegetation.
Lago di Mezzo (Middle
Lake): The smallest but deepest (up to ~15 m in places).
Lago
Inferiore (Lower Lake): The shallowest.
A fourth lake, Lake
Pajolo (or Paiolo), once completed the water ring through the city
center but was reclaimed and dried up by the late 18th century. The
total lake system covers significant area (roughly 6 km² historically),
transforming the urban geography and creating a wetland-rich
environment. The lakes are now integral to the Parco Regionale del
Mincio, a protected area of about 16,000 hectares that stretches along
the Mincio from near Lake Garda to its confluence with the Po. This park
encompasses wetlands, meanders, reed beds, and biodiversity hotspots
like the Valli del Mincio marshes.
The lakes and river have
historically influenced settlement patterns, from Neolithic and Bronze
Age sites to Etruscan, Gallic, and Roman eras. They provide irrigation
for the surrounding farmlands and support navigation and tourism today.
Climate
Mantua has a humid subtropical (Cfa) or moderately
continental climate, heavily moderated by its position in the Po Valley
and proximity to extensive water bodies. High humidity, frequent fog
(especially in winter in the central Po Plain), and mugginess
characterize the weather. It is one of Lombardy’s drier cities but still
receives ample moisture.
Key averages (based on long-term data):
Annual mean temperature: ~13.9–14.6°C.
Winter (Dec–Feb): Cold and
damp; January averages ~3°C (highs ~6–7°C, lows near or below 0°C). Fog
is common, with high relative humidity (~80–85%).
Summer (Jun–Aug):
Hot and muggy; July averages ~24–25°C (highs often 28–30°C+). Humidity
can feel oppressive.
Annual precipitation: 650–930 mm (sources vary
slightly by station), fairly evenly distributed but with peaks in autumn
(e.g., October–November ~90–100 mm/month) and drier February (~40–50
mm). Rainy days average around 200 per year.
The lakes amplify
local humidity and create a slightly milder microclimate than the
surrounding plain, but they also contribute to the characteristic Po
Valley fog and occasional flooding risks.
Environmental and
Landscape Features
The broader landscape blends agriculture (fertile
plains ideal for crops), wetlands, and protected natural areas. The
Parco Regionale del Mincio is a key feature, preserving diverse
habitats: northern morainic hills with woodlands and vineyards, central
riverine plains and meanders, and the Mantua lake wetlands. These
support rich biodiversity, including migratory birds (e.g., herons),
fish, and aquatic plants like water lilies and water chestnuts. Natura
2000 protections highlight its ecological importance.
Historically
prone to malaria due to wetlands, the area has been transformed into a
scenic, green corridor with lakeside paths, parks, and views of the
Renaissance skyline.
Flora and fauna of the territory inevitably
revolve around the presence in Mantua of the lakes and waters that
surround it. In Mantuan lakes, lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera),
originating from South East Asia, are unusually present. From the
banks of the public park of Belfiore, on Lake Superior, the floating
island of lotus flowers is clearly visible with the spectacular
flowering in July-August-September. Their beauty is undoubted but
from an environmental point of view the introduction of the lotus
flower was a questionable operation given that it is an alien
species with a strong weed capacity that makes them subject to
massive periodic mowing interventions for preserve the integrity of
the lakes. Their introduction in Italy is the work of the Xaverian
fathers of Parma in 1914 who decided to use the starch obtained from
the rhizomes for food, as the Chinese had done for centuries. Maria
Pellegreffi, a young graduate in Natural Sciences, took care of the
transplanting of rhizomes in the Upper Lake of Mantua in 1921. The
flour was not successful in Mantuan cuisine but the flower colonized
the lakes. The exciting and surreal landscape that the expanse of
lotus flowers helps to create has also given rise to a legend about
their birth in the territory. It is said that a young man traveling
to the East met a girl with almond eyes and with perfumed skin like
the petals of the lotus flower. Having come to Mantua, the poor
girl, in looking at herself in the lake, fell there, losing her
life. The boy then threw seeds of the flower into the lake so that,
blooming every summer, they could remember his bride with their
perfume and their delicate beauty and, defeated by pain, he took his
own life by disappearing in the lake too.
In addition to the
undisputed king of the lake, it is easy to see native species such
as the water chestnut (Trapa natans), also known as trigol,
particularly developed on Lake Mezzo with its pyramid-shaped and
edible fruits, the buttercup islets of water (Nuphar luteum) with
their golden yellow flowers, which open only partially, maintain
their particular rounded shape and the white water lilies with a
fragrant flower that forms plant groups together with other water
lilies and floating herbs (frog bite, salvinia, Ceratophyllum
demersum etc).
On the edge, together with the marsh reeds,
weeping willows and sedges (the famous carésa used to stuff chairs
and make hats and other handicrafts), grows the native and very rare
swamp hibiscus, which is found in the Mincio Valleys only in
Tuscany, Friuli and Veneto.
Now disappeared in these
territories, as in almost all of Italy, the scargia (Stratiotes
aloides).
The birds find in the reeds and in the waters of the
marshy territory the ideal place to lay their eggs and find food.
The avian fauna is therefore the most representative of the area
even more adjacent to the city.
The purple heron, the
moorhen, the coots with typical black plumage in contrast with the
white that extends on the frontal region, and other anseriformes use
the lake to "build" floating nests at the edge of the reeds on the
shore or on accumulations plants never too far off, the gray heron,
on the other hand, nests in the trees near the numerous waterways
for irrigation that branch out to the fields of the province,
nesting and hunting places for buzzards, bitterns and more "
reserved "owls.
The family of herons present in the waters of
the Mincio Park, in addition to the red and the gray, also includes
the egrets, grebes, squacco herons and night herons. Usually these
birds were observed only in the months between April and September
because they are migratory species, but in recent years they have
preferred to stop even in winter.
Among the reeds hide the
nests of the reedbill and the sideburn. But the sweet waters of the
lake and the marshes of the Mincio and Po are also populated by
catfish, tench, carp, perch, eel, pike and catfish.
It is
possible to navigate the lakes of Mantua, with cruises that allow
you to see the whole city from the water. Combining the historical,
artistic and architectural aspect with the nature of a more unique
than rare natural oasis.
Hares, pheasants and foxes can be
the protagonists of some nocturnal encounters in the Mantuan
countryside.
Stuffed up by the generous hands of visitors, even
ducks and swans are to be counted among the species present in
Virgilian "soil", populating, now without too much fear of human
presence, the shores of the lakes and giving a perhaps unexpected
contact with nature to the tourist of the city of art.
The myth of the foundation of the city is doubly linked to the story
of the prophetess Manto, who according to Greek tradition is the
daughter of the Theban soothsayer Tiresias. The events narrated in the
myth see a dichotomy of this character (as also happened for that of
Longinus): Greek sources narrate that Manto, who fled from Thebes,
stopped in present-day Turkey; others instead describe her arrival,
after a long wandering, in the territory, then completely marshy, which
today hosts the city. In this place she created a lake with her tears;
according to legend, these waters had the magical property of conferring
prophetic abilities on those who drank them. Manto would have met and
married the river divinity Tybris (the Tiber) king of the Tuscans, and
their son Ocno (also called Bianore) would have founded a city on the
banks of the river Mincio calling it, in honor of her mother, Mantua.
This mythical version of the foundation of the city of Mantua is
reported in Virgil's Aeneid. According to another theory, Mantua derives
its name from Manth, the Etruscan god, lord of the dead of the
Tyrrhenian pantheon.
The myth of the foundation of Mantua also
finds space in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy in the XX Canto of the
Inferno, in which Dante himself and his Mantuan guide Virgil meet the
soothsayers. Just pointing to one of these souls, Virgil describes the
surroundings of the city, Lake Garda and the course of the Mincio which
plunges into the Po at Governolo to affirm, referring to the legend of
the soothsayer Manto:
«He built the city over those dead bones;
and for her whom the place first chose,
Mantüa l'appellar without
other fate»
(Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy-XX Canto dell'Inferno.)
Ancient Origins (c. 2000 BC–5th Century AD)
Human settlement in
the Mantua area dates to the Neolithic period (5th–4th millennium BC),
with Bronze Age and later Gallic phases evident in archaeology. Around
2000 BC, an island settlement formed on the Mincio River banks, offering
natural protection. By the 6th century BC, it became an Etruscan
village, traditionally re-founded by the hero Ocnus (or Ocno) and named
after the Etruscan god Mantus (of the underworld). The Romans later
mythologized it as founded by Manto, daughter of Tiresias from Greek
legend.
Conquered by the Cenomani (a Gallic tribe), Mantua was
contested during the Punic Wars and fully Romanized around 220 BC as a
colony populated by Augustus's veterans. It thrived as a municipium. Its
most famous son, the poet Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), was born
nearby in Andes (modern Virgilio) in 70 BC; his Aeneid immortalizes
Mantua with the line "Mantua me genuit" ("Mantua bore me"). Roman
remains include residential settlements from the 3rd century AD.
Medieval Period (5th–13th Centuries): Invasions, Commune, and
Fortification
After the Western Roman Empire's fall (476 AD), Mantua
passed to Odoacer, then the Ostrogoths, Byzantines (during the Gothic
War, 535–554), Lombards, and Franks under Charlemagne (774). It became
part of the Holy Roman Empire by the 10th century.
In the 11th
century, it fell under the powerful Canossa family (Boniface of Tuscany
and his daughter Matilda, d. 1115), who supported the papacy in the
Investiture Controversy. After Matilda's death, Mantua became a free
commune (c. 1115), joining the Lombard League against Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa in 1167. It expanded with magnificent buildings and walls. In
1198, engineer Alberto Pitentino diverted the Mincio to create four
defensive lakes (three survive today: Superiore, Mezzo, and Inferiore),
turning the city into a water-ringed fortress.
Guelph-Ghibelline
conflicts raged; the Bonacolsi family seized power in 1273 under
Pinamonte as Captain General of the People. They ruled prosperously for
two generations, beautifying the city until overthrown in 1328.
The Gonzaga Era (1328–1708): Renaissance Glory and Cultural Zenith
In
1328, Luigi (Ludovico) I Gonzaga—formerly a Bonacolsi official—led a
coup with Scaliger aid, becoming Capitano del Popolo and imperial vicar.
The Gonzaga (originally feudal gentry from nearby Gonzaga village) ruled
Mantua for nearly 380 years, first as captains, then marquesses (from
1433), and dukes (from 1530). They balanced alliances with Venice,
Milan, the Empire, and France while transforming the city into a refined
court.
Key rulers and achievements:
Gianfrancesco I (r.
1407–1444): Bought the marquis title from Emperor Sigismund (1433).
Founded the humanist Casa Giocosa school (1423) under Vittorino da
Feltre, emphasizing classics, arts, and physical education.
Ludovico
III (r. 1444–1478): Married Barbara of Brandenburg; hosted the 1459
Council of Mantua (Pope Pius II's crusade call). Patronized Andrea
Mantegna, whose Camera degli Sposi frescoes (in Castello di San Giorgio,
part of the vast Palazzo Ducale complex) are masterpieces of
illusionistic Renaissance art.
The oculus of Mantegna’s Camera
degli Sposi in Palazzo Ducale, a groundbreaking trompe-l'œil fresco (c.
1465–1474).
Francesco II (r. 1484–1519) and Isabella d'Este:
Francesco was a condottiero; Isabella (from Ferrara's Este family)
became one of the era's most cultured women. Her studiolo (study) in the
Ducal Palace commissioned works from Mantegna, Perugino, and Correggio;
she amassed a legendary art collection and supported music.
Federico
II (r. 1519–1540): Elevated to duke by Charles V (1530); acquired
Montferrat (1531). Commissioned Giulio Romano (Raphael's pupil) to build
Palazzo Te (1525–1535), a Mannerist villa with erotic and mythological
frescoes as a pleasure palace.
A detail from Giulio Romano’s
frescoes in Palazzo Te, exemplifying the playful, illusionistic
Mannerist style favored by the Gonzaga.
The Ducal Palace (Palazzo
Ducale) grew into one of Europe's largest complexes (over 500 rooms,
gardens, and courtyards). Music flourished: Claudio Monteverdi premiered
L'Orfeo (1607) here under Vincenzo I Gonzaga; the court chapel (Santa
Barbara) commissioned sacred works. Artists like Leon Battista Alberti
(designed Sant'Andrea basilica) and Titian also worked in Mantua. The
city reached 40,000 inhabitants and rivaled major powers culturally.
Decline: The direct male line ended with Vincenzo II (d. 1627). The
French Gonzaga-Nevers branch inherited but faced the War of the Mantuan
Succession (1628–1631). Imperial troops sacked the city in 1630, killing
thousands and unleashing plague. Later dukes like Ferdinando Carlo (d.
1708) were extravagant and inept; he fled with art treasures after
allying with France in the War of the Spanish Succession. Habsburgs
deposed the family in 1708.
Austrian Habsburg Rule and Napoleonic
Interlude (1708–1814)
Under Austria, Mantua revived as a fortress in
the "Quadrilateral" (with Verona, Peschiera, Legnago). Cultural
institutions like the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and
the Scientific Theatre emerged. It briefly joined the Duchy of Milan
(1786–1791).
Napoleon besieged and captured it (1796–1797, with a
heroic Austrian relief); it changed hands multiple times (French, then
Austrian again in 1799). It became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy;
Tyrolean rebel Andreas Hofer was executed here in 1810.
19th–20th
Centuries: Risorgimento, Unification, and Modernity
Restored to
Austria (1814) as part of Lombardy-Venetia, Mantua was a hotbed of
Italian nationalism. The Belfiore hangings (1851–1852) saw patriots
executed—a key Risorgimento martyrdom. After the 1859 Battle of
Solferino, Lombardy (minus Mantua) joined Piedmont; full incorporation
came in 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence and plebiscite.
In the 20th century, Mantua industrialized modestly but preserved its
heritage. During WWII, it hosted a Nazi POW camp (Stalag/Dulag 337/339,
1943–1945). Postwar, it thrived as a provincial capital, known for food
(tortelli di zucca) and tourism. Today, with ~50,000 residents, it
blends history with modern life while safeguarding its UNESCO status.
Mantova Comics & Games (February), comics and games fair, has been
held annually since 2006 at the PalaBam ideally continuing Ludamente, an
exhibition that was hosted for a few years from 2003 in the squares of
Mantua, entirely dedicated to non-technological games.
Nuvolari Grand
Prix. Since 1991, a regularity competition reserved for historic cars
Arlecchino d'Oro Award (June), born in 1999 on the initiative of the
"Mantua European Capital of Performing Arts Studies Center" now a
Foundation, aims to pay homage to Tristano Martinelli, a Mantuan actor
to whom we owe the invention of the Harlequin mask . Inserted in the
program of a theatre, music and dance review, the award is given to an
artist of the world of entertainment of international value and fame.
Since 2006, the prize has been included in the Festival Teatro -
Arlecchino d'Oro, which the Mantova European Capital of Entertainment
Foundation organizes and directs in the last ten days of June on behalf
of the Municipality of Mantova.
National meeting of the Madonnari
(August 14th and 15th) since 1973, every year in the square of the
Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie in the municipality of
Curtatone, dozens of painters from all over the world paint with chalk
on the asphalt of the square of the Sanctuary during the Ferragosto
Fair.
Festivaletteratura (September), since 1997 organizes and hosts
meetings with authors, readings, shows, concerts, workshops for adults
and children.
Signs of childhood (November), international art and
theater festival for children. Born in 2006 from an idea by Dario
Moretti, Segni d'infanzia is a great artistic event aimed at the world
of childhood, with particular attention to children aged 18 months to 12
years. The artistic and organizational direction of the festival,
promoted by the Municipality of Mantua, is by Teatro all'Sumptuo, a
professional theater company for children.
Medieval Mantua: since
2006, with the support of the Municipality, the edition of Medieval
Mantua has been held every year between August and September, an event
organized by La Compagnia della Rosa a.d. 1403. A medieval village was
set up in the spaces adjacent to the Gonzaga lakefront and the lawn in
front of the Castle of San Giorgio. Re-enactors from all over Italy and
from European countries including Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, the
Czech Republic enliven the camp and show their equipment. The most
anticipated attractions are Danish ax throwing, archery and medieval
games of skill. At the end of the event, the pitched battle is staged in
front of the castle of San Giorgio.
Mantova Musica Festival: for four
editions since 2004 a music review interested in new trends and
frontiers was organised, following in the footsteps of the consolidated
and best-known Mantuan literary festival: electronics, jazz and
contemporary music. With spaces for debates, book presentations, musical
bands, satire and the encounter between music and theatre.
Mantova
Chamber Music Festival, chamber music festival.
Mantua was the first
Italian city to have its faithful counterpart in Second Life. He
reproduced the real Mantua as faithfully as possible, using
measurements, photos and the layout of the buildings as if from life.
Operating on three levels, the historic center, Palazzo Te and Castello
di San Giorgio, it extended over two Sims. The Tazio Nuvolari museum,
the Bibiena Theater and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea were rebuilt. Sim
was the scene of cultural events and aggregation having the possibility
of proposing real and virtual events.
Exhibitions:
In 2002 the
Celeste Galeria, the museum of the Dukes of Mantua, was set up in the
Fruit Bowls of Palazzo Te and in Palazzo Ducale. 5 years of scientific
studies, 60 scholars involved in the research, 519,000 visitors, with a
daily average of 3923 tickets for the exhibition which brought back to
its ideal setting, from all over the world, part of the prestigious and
impressive Gonzaga collection from the second half of the Six hundred.
Between September 2006 and January 2007, the city – together with Verona
and Padua – organized a cultural itinerary on Andrea Mantegna's art, on
the occasion of the fifth centenary of his death, which took place in
Mantua. Already in 1961 an exhibition was held which earned Mantua the
title of "Città del Mantegna". For a pictorial exhibition that was the
first major mass event that brought more than 200,000 visitors to the
Virgilian city.
Retail trade and tertiary services play an important role in the
city's economy. Among the latter, the local newspaper "Gazzetta di
Mantova" stands out, considered the oldest newspaper in Italy, and the
Banca Agricola Mantovana founded in 1871 which, following a public
tender offer in 1999, became part of of the Montepaschi banking group.
The acquisition process ended with the merger by incorporation of Banca
Agricola Mantovana Spa into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena on 22
September 2008. Since 2000, Banca Popolare di Mantua sold in 2008 by
Banco Popolare to Banca Popolare di Milano. Relevant are the activities
related to livestock and agriculture and to the processing industries of
their productions: we speak above all of the production of butter,
cheese and cured meats (among which the Mantuan salami stands out). The
importance of the primary economic sector for the Mantuan economy is
demonstrated by the presence in Mantua of one of the most important
agricultural commodity exchanges in the Po valley which, since 30
September 2010, has been the seat of the Single National Commission for
slaughter pigs. On 1 October 2006, the first Italian farmer's market
opens in Mantua, anticipating the ministerial decree that will regulate
its activity only at the end of 2007.
In the first years of the
second post-war period, the Burgo paper mill and chemical and
petrochemical industries took office. The first was the oil refining
company ICIP, today IES Italiana Energia e Servizi s.p.a., which was
built starting in 1947 and began production on 20 December 1953 and was
acquired in 2007 by the Hungarian group MOL. An important chemical plant
is the Versalis of the Eni group which continues the activity of the
chemical plant built in 1956 on the initiative of Edison, then continued
under other names such as Montedison, Montedipe and Polimeri Europa.
The clothing sector is also very active, with important
establishments present in the municipal area of the city, Lubiam,
Valstar and Corneliani, in particular specialized in men's fashion, and
the mechanical sector where Belleli stands out, having gone through a
serious crisis in the past years , and SOGEFI, by now a multinational
active in the automotive components sector listed on the Milan Stock
Exchange since 1986 which in 2008 announced the closure, definitively
completed in January of the following year, of the historic first
factory in Mantua.
In the handicraft sector the ancient workings
of ceramics and porcelain are still widespread and renowned.
Main
companies operating in the city
MOL (refinery)
Versalis (energy
and basic chemistry)
TEA (energy, gas, water)
Immsi S.p.A.
(motor/naval industry)
Lubiam (clothing)
Corneliani (clothing)
Bottoli (food: crushed bread)
Grossi Carta (paper mill)
Plastisac
(packaging)
Virgilio Dairy Consortium (food: milk, yoghurt and
cheese)
APAM (public transport company)
Gazzetta di Mantova
(information)
Banca Agricola Mantovana (now Mps) (bank)
Banca
Popolare di Mantova
Belleli Energy (plant engineering)
Sisma
S.p.A. (hygiene)
Streets
Mantua is crossed by the former state roads:
10
Padana Inferiore, 62 della Cisa, 236 Goitese, 420 Sabbionetana and 482
Alto Polesana.
There are two toll booths on the A22 Modena-Brennero
motorway, called Mantova Nord and Mantova Sud, located in the
neighboring municipalities of San Giorgio di Mantova and Bagnolo San
Vito, on which the city's traffic gravitates.
Mantua is also
served by two ring roads:
Northern ring road of Mantua, which crosses
the municipalities of Mantua, San Giorgio, Porto Mantovano and
Marmirolo.
South ring road of Mantua, which crosses the
municipalities of Mantua, Borgo Virgilio and Curtatone.
Railways
and tramways
Mantua station, served by regional reports carried out
by Trenitalia, Trenord and Tper. Located on the Verona-Modena line, this
plant is also the origin of the lines for Monselice and Cremona. Another
line, the Mantova Peschiera railway, was in operation between 1934 and
1967.
On the line to Monselice there is a second station, Mantova
Frassine, from which the connection to the port of Valdaro branches off.
On 9 December 2012, the Borgochiesanuova stop was opened for service
on the Verona-Modena line.
Two other stations are present in the
city hinterland: the Sant'Antonio Mantovano station in the municipality
of Porto Mantovano, and that of Levata in the municipality of Curtatone.
In the past Mantua was also affected by the route of some suburban
tramways, the Brescia-Mantova-Ostiglia line, operated by steam by the
Società Italiana Tramvie e Autovie di Lombardia and Romagna, active
between 1882 and 1933 and the lines for Asola and Viadana, in charge of
the Tranvie Provinciali Mantovane, active between 1886 and 1953 in their
terminal part, electrified in 1926.
By 2023, Mantua will be
connected directly to Reggio Emilia and to the Reggio Mediopadana
station, underlying the Reggio Emilia AV Mediopadana station, via
Suzzara and Guastalla in just over an hour's journey. Currently the
connection already exists, but much slower (from two hours to two hours
and forty) due to the double change in Suzzara and Guastalla, the long
waiting times and the diesel trains currently in use. Once the Reggio
Emilia-Guastalla railway has been electrified (by summer 2020) and at
least the section between Guastalla and Suzzara of the
Parma-Suzzara-Poggio Rusco railway (by 2022), a direct and fast
connection will instead be possible.
You bring
The port of
Mantua is located in Valdaro at the mouth of the Mantua-Venice canal
also known as the Fissero-Tartaro-Canalbianco-Po di Levante waterway
which allows 5th class ships to have a direct connection with the
Adriatic Sea 365 days a year 135 km away and with the Venice lagoon. The
basin of San Leone near Governolo connects the port of Mantua via the
Fissero canal with the river Po. A railway link connects the port to the
Mantua-Monselice line.
Porto Catena is the ancient commercial
port of Mantua, already active since 1200, now used only for tourist
functions. It is located in a small inlet of the Inferiore lake into
which the Rio flows, an artificial canal that has crossed the city since
the 12th century.
Urban mobility
The city has a bus service
managed by APAM, acronym of Azienda Pubblici Autoservizi Mantova. The
urban public transport service which also affects the territory of
neighboring municipalities such as Porto Mantovano, San Giorgio di
Mantova, Bigarello, Borgo Virgilio and Curtatone, i.e. the so-called
"Grande Mantova", is provided through nine lines. APAM also handles the
management of a long-distance network, mostly with terminus in the
capital.
The ATV company instead fulfills the connection with the
city of Verona through the itinerary for Castelbelforte.
The
tramway network of Mantua, active between 1908 and 1953, was a set of
relationships consisting of two purely urban lines belonging to the
municipality and three further suburban lines managed by the Province,
built in part by exploiting the infrastructure of the pre-existing steam
tramways .
Airports
Mantua is served by Verona-Villafranca
Airport, which is about 30 km from the city center and operates a
service of strategic importance for the provinces of Verona, Mantua,
Brescia, Trento and Bolzano. The airport is connected daily with the
main national cities (Rome, Palermo, Catania, Naples, Olbia, Bari,
Cagliari) as well as with some international cities such as Amsterdam,
London, Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt am Main, Moscow-Domodedovo,
Brussels, Bucharest, Warsaw, and can be reached by car via the A22 or
the SR62.
Airfields
The city of Mantua has some airfields and
airfields, even within its own province. The local Aero Club is based at
the City of Curtatone airfield and is named after the Pilot General
Alessandro Bladelli, Mantuan and one of the founders of the Getti
Tonanti Acrobatic Patrol, forerunner of the current Frecce Tricolori.
Motorized flight activities are carried out at the City of Curtatone
Airfield with both ultralight and general aviation.
The city of Mantua boasts important figures who have distinguished
themselves in the sporting arena. The most famous is undoubtedly Tazio
Nuvolari, also known as the flying Mantuan. A museum temporarily housed
in some rooms of the Palazzo Ducale in Piazza Sordello is dedicated to
the two Mantuan "champions" par excellence, Nuvolari and the cyclist
Learco Guerra.
Soccer
Mantova, in its centenary history, was
in fact founded in 1911, has played 12 Serie A championships, of which 5
in the Prima Divisione in the 1920s, and 17 Serie B championships. of
time that goes from the 1958/1959 championship to that of 1961/1962,
thanks to a super formation that went down in history with the name of
Piccolo Brasile led by Edmondo Fabbri, future coach of the Italy
national football team. That team passed in four years from the fourth
series to the Olympus of football. After two consecutive relegations,
since 1973 the red and white (these are the social colors of Mantova)
have gotten by for years in Serie C, suffering the shame of two
bankruptcies (1983,1994) and recovering following the arrival of
presidents Alberto Castagnaro and Fabrizio Lori. We owe the return to C1
(2003/2004) to the first, the transition from C1 to B to the second. It
is also necessary to remember Romano Freddi, who, although little loved
by the square, was the architect of the safeguarding of football in
Mantua, when in the summer of 1994 the company went bankrupt for the
second time.
The city's soccer team had returned to Serie B at the
end of the 2004/2005 season, after a 32-year absence. The cadetteria was
conquered at the end of the play-offs, played and won against Frosinone
and Pavia. The 2005/2006 season saw Mantova narrowly miss out on
immediate promotion to Serie A in the play-off final against Torino, a
4-2 victory in Mantova and a 3-1 defeat in Torino after extra time.
After five years of discrete Serie B championships, at the end of the
2009/2010 championship, Mantova were relegated to Lega Pro. On 30 June
2010, the Virgilian team failed to register for the Lega Pro
championship, thus disappearing from professional football . A.C.
Mantova failed, football was reborn as Mantova Football Club which
immediately won the Serie D championship immediately bringing Virgilian
football back among the professionals, in Lega Pro, but after a few
seasons tormented by various management changes with bankruptcy results,
in the summer of 2017 the red and whites are excluded from Serie C after
saving themselves on the field by starting again from Serie D with the
name of Mantova 1911.
In football Mantua was the birthplace of
Roberto Boninsegna who reached the Italian national football team,
playing in major Serie A teams such as Cagliari, Inter, Juventus.
Volleyball
The sporting tradition of Mantua is good with regard
to men's volleyball. Volleyball Mantova conquered Serie A1 at the end of
the 1986-87 championship. He played two championships in the top flight,
then being replaced for three years by Griamo Virgilio, however both
were enmeshed at the bottom of the standings.
In the nineties,
Volleyball Mantova played several times in the A2 series.
With the
2006/07 season, which culminated with the victory of the promotion
play-offs, the Top Team Volley Mantova landed in the Serie A2
championship. Top Team Volley itself won the Italian Serie B Cup in 2006
and 2007.
Basketball
Since 2012 Mantua has also hosted
Pallacanestro Mantovana, known until 2013 as Pallacanestro Primavera
Mirandola of the Modena town of the same name, currently playing in the
A2 Gold and which plays the internal matches at the PalaBam.
Furthermore, there is the San Pio club which plays in C silver with
considerable youth activity.
Cycling
In 1931 Learco Guerra won
the cycling world championship in Copenhagen (Denmark). In the same
year, the pink jersey was established as a symbol of supremacy in the
standings and it was Learco Guerra who wore it first, resulting in the
victory of the inaugural stage of the 19th Giro d'Italia, which started
from Milan and ended in his native Mantua. The "Giro" has finished a
stage in Mantua on ten occasions. In 1963 the Virgil city was only the
starting point of the stage which ended in Treviso.
Stages of the
Giro d'Italia with arrival in Mantua:
1923 9th stage Trieste-Mantova,
won by Alfredo Sivocci
1931 1st stage Milan-Mantova, won by Learco
Guerra
1935 2nd stage Cremona-Mantova, won by Domenico Piemontesi
1946 16th stage Verona-Mantova, won by Elio Bertocchi
1956 5th stage
Voghera-Mantova, won by Miguel Poblet
1967 15th stage Lido degli
Estensi-Mantova, won by Michele Dancelli
1971 11th stage
Sestola-Mantova, won by Marino Basso
1981 16th stage Milan-Mantova,
won by Claudio Torelli
1983 1st stage Brescia-Mantova, (team
chronology) won by Bianchi
1989 11th stage Riccione-Mantova, won by
Urs Freuler
In 2008 with a prologue time trial in front of
Palazzo Te won by the Dutch Mirjam Melchers, the "Women's Giro d'Italia"
started. On the same viale Te, in 2015, the third stage of the Giro Rosa
2015, the Curtatone > Mantova, ended with the victory of the Dutch
Lucinda Brand.
Mantua was also the arrival point of an important
cycling race, the Milan-Mantua, held 24 times starting in 1906 and held
for the last time in 1962 with the victory of Pierino Baffi.
Mincio rowers
Canottieri Mincio was born in 1883 as a multi-sport
club. Its origins are linked to sports, especially water sports:
swimming, diving, sailing, rowing and canoeing are the disciplines that
distinguish it and which have exported its name to Italy and the world.
There are also several personalities who have made its history: from
Gabriele D'Annunzio, who in 1928 coined the company motto (still in use
today) "Persevering you arrive", to Azeglio Mondini, born in 1923 who
from 1937 was a great master of rowing and who trained high-level
sportsmen such as Marco Penna; or Giacomo Bottoli and Andrea Bonezzi
(high-level sailors) and Bruno Pizzamiglio who gave birth to the Mantuan
diving school where great sportsmen such as Francesco Priori and Massimo
Nibioli were born.
Motocross
Mantua has acquired considerable
importance in recent years in the context of motocross competitions held
on the Migliaretto circuit. The Italian Grand Prix was held in 1991,
1996, 1998, 2000, 2007, 2008, and the Lombardy Grand Prix in 2010, 2015
and 2016, trials that were part of the Motocross World Championship.
Other sports
The tradition of rugby in Mantua is discreet, thanks
to "Rugby Mantova", a sports club founded in 1974 which competes
permanently in the national B series. Rugby Mantova participated with a
small share in the Italian rugby union franchise led by Rugby Viadana,
called Aironi Rugby, which participated for two years in the Celtic
League.
In late spring in Mantua the "Minciomarcia" street race
is held, a non-competitive foot race open to all. Now in its 38th
edition in 2011, it sees the participation of a number of participants
often exceeding 5,000. Since 1987, with the victory in the first edition
of the marathon runner Orlando Pizzolato, a competitive race called the
"Maratonina di Mantova" has been held. After a few years of suspension,
it has been held continuously since 1997, reaching its 20th edition in
2011.
The A2 series was conquered twice, at the turn of the year
2000, by the "Circolo Scacchistico Mantovano" which, reborn in 1995, was
able to organize the final of the 56th Absolute Italian Chess
Championship in Mantua in 1996 and the final of the 28th Italian Women's
Championship. There was another brief presence in Serie A2 in 2010.
A 5-a-side football team has been active in Mantua since 2013 and
participates in the national Serie B championship and plays internal
matches at the PalaLù sports hall in the Lunetta district.
Sport
facilities
Stadio Danilo Martelli is the main sports facility in the
city. Inaugurated in the 1930s, it has undergone numerous renovations
over the years to stabilize the structure. Mantova plays its matches
inside and has a capacity of 14,822 seats.
PalaBam, Mantua's main
sports hall, inaugurated in September 2005, owes its name to the acronym
BAM of Banca Agricola Mantovana, a city credit institution incorporated
in 2008 by Banca MPS. It has a capacity of almost 4,000 spectators
which, with mobile grandstands placed on the parterre, reaches the
figure of 5,000. The PalaBam has often hosted concerts and theatrical
performances of national and international appeal, also in the adjacent
exhibition center which hosts sector exhibitions which has acquired
national renown Mantova Comics & Games.
PalaLù is the second sports
arena in Mantua, located in the popular district of Lunetta. Inaugurated
in 2012, Mantua women's handball matches are played inside.
Campo
scuola Tazio Nuvolari is a track and field facility with a tartan
surface located in Via Learco Guerra near the Virgiliano forest.
Tazio Nuvolari motocross field, in Via Learco Guerra, in the Migliaretto
area, is a competitive facility that also hosts competitions from the
motocross world championship.
Press
Gazette of Mantua
The Voice of Mantua
The Citadel
The Day
(mantua local edition)
The new Chronicle of Mantua
Periodicals
Online
The Other Mantua
Mantua News
Television
Telemantova
Publishing
Universitas Studiorum
List of major films and television miniseries that had Mantua as a
set:
The mill of the Po, 1948, by Alberto Lattuada.
Sensuality,
1952, by Clemente Fracassi.
Sense, 1954, by Luchino Visconti.
War
and Peace, 1956, by King Vidor.
Italian women and love, 1961.
The
March on Rome, 1962, by Dino Risi; leading actors Vittorio Gassman and
Ugo Tognazzi.
The visit, 1963, by Antonio Pietrangeli.
La
parmigiana, 1963, by Antonio Pietrangeli.
The seasons of our love,
1965, by Florestano Vancini; leading actor Enrico Maria Salerno.
Spider strategy, 1970, by Bernardo Bertolucci.
Goodbye cruel brother,
1971, by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi.
The devil in the brain, 1972, by
Sergio Sollima; leading actress Stefania Sandrelli.
Power, 1974, by
Augusto Tretti.
Salò or the 120 days of Sodom, 1975, by Pier Paolo
Pasolini.
Poor Christ, 1975, by Pier Carpi.
Novecento, 1976, by
Bernardo Bertolucci; leading actors Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu.
Gran bollito, 1977, by Mauro Bolognini; lead actress Shelley Winters.
Ligabue, 1977, by Salvatore Nocita.
The body of ragassa, 1979, by
Pasquale Festa Campanile with Enrico Maria Salerno and Lilli Carati.
State crime, 1982, by Gianfranco De Bosio, TV miniseries in five
episodes.
The Charterhouse of Parma, 1982, by Mauro Bolognini, TV
miniseries in six episodes.
Don Camillo, 1983, by Terence Hill.
Tomorrow I'm getting married, 1984, by Francesco Massaro.
Miss
Arizona, 1987, by Pál Sándor.
The match, 1988, by Carlo Vanzina
The Betrothed, 1989, by Salvatore Nocita, TV miniseries, TV drama.
Just to say goodbye, 1991 directed by Sergio Sollima, TV miniseries.
Il Portaborse, 1991, by Daniele Luchetti; leading actors Silvio Orlando
and Nanni Moretti.
The Ricordi family, 1995, by Mauro Bolognini, TV
miniseries in four episodes.
The kingfisher's goal, 1996, by Ruggero
Miti with Mara Venier.
Marquise, 1997, by Véra Belmont.
Radiofreccia, 1998, by Luciano Ligabue
Monella, 1998, by Pier Carpi
Viola kisses everyone, 1998, by Giovanni Veronesi.
Love in the Mirror
(1999), by Salvatore Maira; leading actress Anna Galiena.
The craft
of arms, 2001, by Ermanno Olmi.
First give me a kiss, 2003, by
Ermanno Olmi.
Renzo and Lucia, 2004, by Francesca Archibugi, TV
miniseries in two episodes.
Agate and the storm, 2004, by Silvio
Soldini.
Monamour, 2005, by Tinto Brass.
Sandrine in the rain,
2007, by Tonino Zangardi.
Rigoletto in Mantua, 2010, by Marco
Bellocchio, live television film, transposition of the opera of the same
name by Giuseppe Verdi.
The Process, 2019, by Stefano Lodovichi,
television series