What is Mantova known for?

Mantua's ruling family from 1328 to 1707, whose patronage built the Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Te and the Renaissance core of the city. Andrea Mantegna, court painter to Ludovico Gonzaga, who frescoed the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale between 1465 and 1474. Lago Superiore, di Mezzo and Inferiore, formed in 1198 by damming the Mincio, still ringing the city on three sides today.

Mantova is a comune in the province of Mantova, Lombardy region of Italy, about 43 kilometers from Verona.

Lombardy · Mantova

Mantova

A Gonzaga capital, encircled on three sides by lakes the Mincio formed in the twelfth century, UNESCO-listed together with Sabbioneta since 2008.

43 km / 27 mi

Nearest hub (Verona)

48,653

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Mantova sitson a peninsula in the Mincio, halfway between Milan and Venice. In the twelfth century the river was dammed into three artificial lakes, Superiore, di Mezzo and Inferiore, which still ring the city on three sides and worked as its defence for six centuries. From 1328 to 1707 it was the seat of the Gonzaga. The Palazzo Ducale they assembled across that span covers 34,000 square meters between Piazza Sordello and Lago di Mezzo, with over a thousand rooms; the Camera degli Sposi, frescoed by Andrea Mantegna between 1465 and 1474, is the heart of that complex. Outside the walls, Federico II Gonzaga commissioned Giulio Romano to build Palazzo Te between 1525 and 1535: a pleasure villa with the Sala dei Giganti, whose painted Olympus collapses on the viewer from every wall. Mantua and Sabbioneta were jointly inscribed by UNESCO in 2008. The city was Italian Capital of Culture in 2016.

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Gallery

10 photos · scroll →

Known for

Palazzo Ducale
Gonzaga ducal complex of 34,000 square meters between Piazza Sordello and Lago di Mezzo, with over a thousand rooms across four centuries of additions.
Camera degli Sposi
Frescoed chamber by Andrea Mantegna inside the Palazzo Ducale, painted between 1465 and 1474, with an illusionistic oculus on the ceiling.
Palazzo Te
Suburban pleasure villa built between 1525 and 1535 by Giulio Romano for Federico II Gonzaga, with the Sala dei Giganti and Sala di Amore e Psiche.
Basilica di Sant'Andrea
Renaissance basilica designed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472, with a single vaulted nave and the supposed relic of the Holy Blood of Christ.
Piazza delle Erbe and Rotonda di San Lorenzo
Medieval market square with the eleventh-century round church of San Lorenzo, the oldest church still standing in Mantova.
I tre laghi
Three lakes formed in 1198 by damming the Mincio, ringing the city on three sides, navigated by boat from the Lago di Mezzo pier.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months Mantova works best. The lakes hold light all day, the Palazzo Ducale is walkable without summer queues, and the surrounding bike paths to Peschiera del Garda run sixty kilometers along the Mincio. July and August get humid and still on the plain, with mosquitoes off the lakes and afternoons that empty the centro storico. The Festivaletteratura in early September brings authors and readers into the piazzas for five days. November through March turns cold and foggy: the Camera degli Sposi remains the photograph the regulars come back for, but the city outside the walls runs at half speed.