What is Solferino known for?

300,000 soldiers, 6,000 dead, 35,000 wounded; the last battle in Europe personally commanded by three reigning monarchs. Henry Dunant's witness here led to A Memory of Solferino and the foundation of the International Red Cross movement. The 12th-century Scaligeri tower on the hill, the strategic watchpoint that gave the village its military importance.

Solferino is a comune in the province of Mantova, Lombardy region of Italy, about 44 kilometers from Brescia.

Lombardy · Mantova

Solferino

The morainic hill where 300,000 soldiers met on 24 June 1859, the battle whose wounded gave Henry Dunant the idea of the Red Cross.

44 km / 27 mi

Nearest hub (Brescia)

2,610

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Bandiera Arancione

Why come

Solferino is a low hill commune in the morainic ridges south of Lake Garda, sixteen kilometres west of the Mincio and just inside the province of Mantova. The hill, the Spia d'Italia, has been a watchpost since the 12th century, when the Scaligeri built the tower that still rises 23 metres above the surrounding plain. On 24 June 1859 around 300,000 soldiers of the French and Piedmontese armies under Napoleon III and Vittorio Emanuele II faced the Austrian army of Franz Joseph I across these slopes, in what would be the last battle in European history personally commanded by reigning monarchs. Roughly 6,000 men died and 35,000 more were wounded or missing. The Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, passing through the day after, organised civilian care for the wounded in the church at Castiglione delle Stiviere and afterwards wrote A Memory of Solferino, the book that launched the International Red Cross. The Ossario and the small museum next to the tower preserve the bones and the relics.

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Gallery

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Known for

Rocca di Solferino (Spia d'Italia)
12th-century Scaligeri tower on the hilltop, 23 metres tall, the historic watchpoint over the surrounding plain.
Cappella Ossario
Ossuary chapel containing the remains of soldiers from the 1859 battle, walls lined with skulls and bones.
Museo Storico di Solferino
Risorgimento museum at the base of the Rocca, uniforms, weapons, letters and relics from the 24 June 1859 battle.
Memoriale della Croce Rossa
Stone memorial wall listing every national Red Cross society, inaugurated for the centenary of the movement in 1959.
Chiesa di San Nicola
Parish church in the centre, used as a field hospital in the days after the battle.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Solferino's calendar is built around two seasons and one date. April through June and again September through October are the comfortable months, when the hill is green, the morainic slopes hold their wildflowers, and the trails to the ossuary and the memorial open to school groups. The 24 June anniversary, the Fiaccolata della Pace, draws Red Cross volunteers from across Europe in a torch march from Solferino to Castiglione delle Stiviere. July and August bring Po-valley heat into the high thirties and a damp humidity off Lake Garda. November through February is quiet; fog and rain dominate, many of the small accommodations close, and the museum keeps short hours.