What is Gualtieri known for?

Hundred-meter-square arcaded piazza with sixty-nine arches, the largest porticoed square in Emilia and the heart of the Bentivoglio reclamation project. The Naïf painter (1899-1965) lived and worked in poverty on the Po floodplain around Gualtieri; the museum holds the largest permanent collection of his work. The 1951 Polesine flood reached 3.80 meters in Piazza Bentivoglio, marked on the keystones of the arches and visible from the square.

Gualtieri is a comune in the province of Reggio nell'Emilia, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 24 kilometers from Reggio Emilia.

Emilia-Romagna · Reggio nell'Emilia

Gualtieri

A right-bank Po commune in the Reggiana lowlands, built around a hundred-meter-square arcaded piazza and the Bentivoglio palace that holds the Ligabue collection.

24 km / 15 mi

Nearest hub (Reggio Emilia)

6,241

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Borghi più belli d'Italia

Why come

Gualtieri sitson the right bank of the Po, twenty-five kilometers north of Reggio Emilia, on the floodplain the Bentivoglio family reclaimed in the late sixteenth century. Piazza Bentivoglio, designed as a perfect hundred-meter square with arcades on three sides and sixty-nine arches, is the largest porticoed square in Emilia. Palazzo Bentivoglio at the closed end was built between 1594 and 1600 by Ippolito Bentivoglio, who incorporated the older family Casa Vecchia. The square and the palace flooded repeatedly through the centuries; the 1951 Polesine flood reached 3.80 meters, marked on the arch keystones. The Palazzo holds the Antonio Ligabue Museum: Ligabue (1899-1965), the self-taught Naïf painter who lived in poverty on the Po floodplain, painted the jaguars, tigers and rural scenes that have made him the most recognised twentieth-century Reggiana artist. The same building holds the Umberto Tirelli costume collection.

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Gallery

6 photos · scroll →

Known for

Piazza Bentivoglio
Hundred-meter-square arcaded piazza laid out in the late sixteenth century, with sixty-nine arches on three sides and Palazzo Bentivoglio closing the fourth.
Palazzo Bentivoglio
Late-sixteenth-century palace by Ippolito Bentivoglio, with frescoed halls and a series of allegorical cycles by Pier Francesco Battistelli and Marcantonio Franceschini.
Museo Antonio Ligabue
Permanent collection of paintings and sculptures by the Naïf master Antonio Ligabue, housed inside Palazzo Bentivoglio.
Collezione Umberto Tirelli
Stage costumes and film wardrobe assembled by tailor Umberto Tirelli for Visconti, Zeffirelli and others, displayed in the palace.
Golena del Po
Po river floodplain north of the centro storico, with cycle paths along the levee and the marks on the piazza arches recording the 1951 flood height.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Gualtieri runs on the Po-plain calendar. April through June and September through October are the working months, with mild air on the floodplain and clear evenings under the arcades. July and August touch thirty-six degrees on the flat and the piazza empties between two and five in the afternoon. The arcades give shade through the hottest hours and become the social space of the town in summer evenings. November through February brings the long Po fog, sealing the square for days; many trattorie close from late December through February. The summer Ligabue Festival, in July, fills the piazza and the palace courtyard with film, jazz and theatre programs in the painter's memory.