What is Soncino known for?

Brick Sforza fortress of 1473-1475 with four corner towers and a high keep, one of the most intact Po-plain castles in Lombardy. The first complete printed Hebrew Bible was produced in Soncino in 1488 by a Jewish printing family who later took the town's name. Declared a free borough in 1118, with masonry walls raised in the thirteenth century under Buoso da Duera.

Soncino is a comune in the province of Cremona, Lombardy region of Italy, about 37 kilometers from Brescia.

Lombardy · Cremona

Soncino

A walled borgo on the Oglio with the Sforza fortress of 1473 and the press that printed the first complete Hebrew Bible in 1488.

37 km / 23 mi

Nearest hub (Brescia)

7,490

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Borghi più belli d'Italia

Why come

Soncino sits on the Oglio river at the meeting point of three provinces, Cremona, Brescia, and Bergamo. The town was declared a free borough in 1118 and its position on the Lombard frontier kept it militarized through the medieval centuries. The Rocca Sforzesca dates to 1473-1475: Galeazzo Maria Sforza built it from brick to a Visconti-Po-plain pattern, four corner towers and a high keep, raised in two years because the construction used almost no stonework. It is one of the most intact Sforza fortresses in northern Italy. The other reason to come to Soncino is the press. In 1488, a family of Jewish printers in the town printed the first complete Hebrew Bible. They later took the name Soncino from the town and dispersed across Europe, but the original house, the Casa degli Stampatori, still stands and now holds the printing museum. Inside the walls, the Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta and the frescoed Santa Maria delle Grazie hold the medieval and Renaissance heart of the borgo.

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Gallery

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Known for

Rocca Sforzesca
Brick Sforza fortress built 1473-1475 by Galeazzo Maria Sforza, four corner towers and a high keep, one of the most intact in northern Italy.
Casa degli Stampatori
Home of the Jewish family who printed the first complete Hebrew Bible here in 1488; now the Museo della Stampa.
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie
Late fifteenth-century church with the interior completely covered in frescoes from the Lombard Renaissance.
Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta
Medieval parish church at the heart of the centro storico, the religious center of the free borough from the twelfth century.
Cinta muraria di Soncino
Stretches of the masonry curtain wall raised in the thirteenth century under Buoso da Duera, partly preserved around the borgo.

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 right months. The Rocca and the Pieve are open, the frescoes at Santa Maria delle Grazie read cleanly in shoulder-season light, and the Oglio walk is dry. July and August reach thirty-three degrees with valley humidity; the borgo empties between two and six. November through March is quiet. Po-plain fog wraps the town in long stretches, and many shops shorten hours. The historical festival, Soncino in Costume, runs each summer through the streets and the Rocca courtyard. The Casa degli Stampatori opens year-round on weekends.