Sights in Mantua
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Palazzo Te
The main reason to visit Mantua’s other Gonzaga palace, Palazzo Te isn’t its modern art and Egyptian displays, but the fanciful 16th-century palace itself. Built by Giulio Romano, over-the-top rooms include the Camera dei Giganti, one of the most fantastic and frightening creations of the Renaissance, adorned with dramatic frescoes depicting Jupiter’s destruction of the Titans.
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Castello di San Giorgio
Palazzo Ducale's centrepiece is Castello di San Giorgio, overflowing with works of art collected by the Gonzaga family, Mantua's long-time rulers. Don't miss Andrea Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi, a wonderful series of frescoes executed by the master between 1465 and 1474 in one of the castle's towers. The trompe l'oeil oculus adds a playful touch to the more formal family scenes.
Other rooms worth pausing over include the Sala del Pisanello, decorated with unfinished 15th-century frescoes of Arthurian legends by Pisanello, the heavily frescoed Sala di Troia and the Camera dello Zodiaco, with its magnificent deep-blue ceiling festooned with figures from the zodiac. Equally…
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Basilica di Sant’Andrea
The elaborate baroque cupola of Basilica di Sant’Andrea lords it over the city. Designed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472, it safeguards a much-disputed relic: golden vessels said to hold earth soaked by the blood of Christ. Longinus, the Roman soldier who speared Christ on the cross, is said to have scooped up the earth and buried it in Mantua after leaving Palestine. Today, these containers rest beneath a marble octagon in front of the altar and are paraded around the town in a grand procession on Good Friday. There is no dispute about the tomb of Andrea Mantegna, also inside the basilica.
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Casa Mantegna
In 1476, the ruling Gonzaga family gave Andrea Mantegna land on which to build himself a house. You can see the results, now used as exhibition space in the Casa Mantegna. The sobre facade gives way to a series of rooms built around a unique, cylindrical courtyard.
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Rotonda di San Lorenzo
South of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea, across 15th-century colonnaded Piazza delle Erbe, is the 11th-century Romanesque Rotonda di San Lorenzo, sunk below the level of the square and believed to stand on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Venus.
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Parco dell Scienza
A riverside promenade with an informative twist, the Parco dell Scienza stretches along the shore of Lago di Mezzo from Porta San Giorgio to Porta Molina. Information panels and gadgets illustrate various physical and scientific phenomena in a kid-friendly fashion.
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Torre della Gabbia
Enter Piazza Sordello from the south and on your left you have the grand house of the Gonzagas' predecessors, the Bonacolsi clan. Hapless prisoners used to be dangled in a cage from the tower, aptly called the Torre della Gabbia - Cage Tower.
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Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie
On Lago Superiore, 8km from Mantua in Grazie di Curtatone, is the Lombard Gothic-style Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie, built in 1406 in thanks for the end of the Black Death. Inside are 53 life-size papier-mâché statues.
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Cattedrale
The Cattedrale pales before the magnificence of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea. The facade was erected in the mid-18th century, while the decoration inside was completed by Giulio Romano after a fire in 1545.
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Palazzo Broletto
Past the 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione is Palazzo Broletto, which dominates neighbouring Piazza Broletto. In a niche on the façade is a seated figure wearing a doctor's cap, which is said to represent Virgil.
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Palazzo della Ragione
In the Palazzo della Ragione, which runs the length of the square from the Rotonda and was once the seat of secular power in the city, you can see exhibitions of varying interest (usually free).
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Palazzo Ducale
Occupying a whopping chunk of the city’s northeastern corner, the imposing walls of Palazzo Ducale hide three squares, 15 courtyards, a park and 500-odd rooms.
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Casa di Rigoletto
Behind the cathedral lies Casa di Rigoletto, which Verdi used as a model set for most of his operas.
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