Veneto · Verona
Lazise
The walled port on the southeastern shore of Lake Garda granted the right to fortify in 983, considered the first comune in Italy.
Known for
983 CHARTER
Otto I's grant to fortify the village and collect tolls, often cited as the founding act of the first comune in Italy.
SCALIGER WALLS
1.5 kilometers of fourteenth-century fortifications with the castle and harbor, the most complete surviving Scaliger ring on the lake.
BARDOLINO DOC
Lazise grows the red Bardolino DOC on the morainic hills behind the town and joins Bardolino and Cavaion in the Strada del Vino.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: Martino di Tours, 11 November
Why come
Lazise sits on the southeastern shore of Lake Garda, twenty kilometers northwest of Verona. In 983 the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I granted the village the right to fortify itself and collect tolls, an act often cited as the first comunal charter in Italy. The first walls went up shortly after; the current ring of 1.
5 kilometers, with twelve towers and three gates, was completed under Cansignorio della Scala between 1375 and 1381. The Scaligeri also built the rectangular castle at the southern corner of the wall, with its five square towers and the fortified dock for the lake galleys. Venice took the town in 1405 and held it until Napoleon arrived in 1796; Porta Lion, on the south, still carries the winged lion of Saint Mark.
The Romanesque Chiesa di San Nicolò by the harbor holds twelfth-century frescoes attributed to the Giotto school. Lazise is also one of the Veneto's wine and honey communes.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Lazise’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
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What to see
Castello Scaligero
Rectangular fortress built 1350-1381 by the Scaligeri at the south corner of the walls, with five square towers and a fortified dock for lake galleys.
Mura medievali
1.5 kilometers of walls completed in 1381 under Cansignorio della Scala, with thirteen surviving towers and three gates: San Zeno, Nuova and Lion.
Chiesa di San Nicolò
Twelfth-century Romanesque church on the harbor, with frescoes attributed to the Giotto school and a former function as a customs warehouse.
Porto Vecchio
Medieval harbor protected by the castle walls, the oldest enclosed port on Lake Garda, with the dogana veneta customs house on its northern edge.
Dogana Veneta
Customs house built in the sixteenth century, used by Venice to collect duties on lake trade, now an event venue overlooking the old harbor.
The slow-trip planner
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Living here
- Population 6,852
- In-betweeni
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest airport Verona, 40 min drive
- Regional capital Venezia, 1 h 40 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 76 m
- Population: 6,852
- Surface area: 63.15 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Featured on
Lazise appears on 2 themed picks from our Collections:
Close by
More towns near Lazise
Bardolino
Province: Verona
Lake Garda's east-shore wine town at 65 meters, where Corvina and Rondinella grapes have made Bardolino and Chiaretto since the Roman period.
Peschiera del Garda
Province: Verona
The Venetian fortress town on a Mincio island at the southern outlet of Lake Garda, UNESCO-listed in 2017 for its Sanmicheli bastions.
Costermano sul Garda
Province: Verona
A morainal-hill commune at 237 meters above the eastern shore of Lake Garda, with one of the largest German military cemeteries in Italy.
Sirmione
Province: Brescia
A 4-kilometer peninsula reaching into the southern Garda, with the Scaliger fortified port and the Roman villa called the Grotte di Catullo at its tip.
Castellaro Lagusello
Province: Mantova
A walled medieval borgo south of Lake Garda, ringed by 13th-century stone walls and overlooking a small heart-shaped natural lake that gives the village its second name and most-photographed silhouette.
🍷 Città del Vino
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The Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
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A walled hill town at 205 meters that Caterina Cornaro ran as her court after trading Cyprus to Venice in 1489.
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A Prosecco hills borgo at 261 meters under the dolomite rock of CastelBrando, the largest inhabited castle complex in Europe.
Conegliano
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The Prosecco capital at 65 meters, birthplace of the painter Cima and home of Italy's first oenology school, opened in 1876.
Farra di Soligo
Province: Treviso
The heart of the Prosecco Hills UNESCO landscape — an 8,477-resident comune in the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG zone (UNESCO World Heritage since 2019), with the three medieval Torri di Credazzo crowning a hilltop above its vineyards, Cittaslow + Città del Vino signals, and direct walking access to the most photographed stretch of the hogback ridge.