Castiglione delle Stiviere - Castiglione delle Stiviere

Castiglione delle Stiviere is a city of Lombardy, located inAlto Mantovano.

To know

Important industrial center of the Alto Mantovano area. It is home to St. Luigi Gonzaga, world patron of youth, and of Red Cross, born here after the bloody Battle of Solferino of June 24, 1859.

Geographical notes

The territory of Castiglione delle Stiviere belongs to the sub-hilly area located at the foot of the hills that delimit the Lake Garda towards the Po Valley. The official altitude of Castiglione delle Stiviere, corresponding to the point on which the Palazzo Comunale stands, is 116 meters above sea level. The municipality borders to the north with Lonato del Garda, to the east with Solferino is Medole and to the south with Castel Goffredo, west with Montichiari, Calcined is Carpenedolo. The town is 39.4 km from Mantua (with straight path to the southeast), 35.7 km from Brescia and 129 km from Milan.

When to go

Climate	gen	Feb	mar	apr	mag	down	Jul	needle	set	Oct	nov	dec
Maximum (° C)	4	8	13	17	22	26	29	28	24	18	10	5
Minimum (° C)	-3	-1	3	7	11	15	18	17	14	9	3	-2
Precipitation (mm)	60	54	64	69	92	75	73	85	62	84	74	54
Source: Eurometeo

Castiglione delle Stiviere enjoys a typical temperate continental climate of the high Po Valley and mid-latitudes. As in the rest of the surrounding plain, winters are moderately rigid, with little rain and foggy days; summers are hot and sultry in the months of July and August, with temperatures that can rise above 35º and with stormy rainfall; springs and autumns are generally rainy. In spring and autumn, the climate is milder and more humid.

Background

By Castiglione delle Stiviere (Castilione them Stivere or Castilio de Stiveriis in Latin) the origins are unknown. Due to its geographical position it was a highly disputed area in the period of the Lordships, between Gonzaga, Visconti and Scaligeri, until in 1559 it began with the Marquis Ferrante Gonzaga its autonomous history as a fiefdom. The birth of Luigi Gonzaga (1568) the same one who will be proclaimed a saint in 1726, and today venerated in the world as "the saint of youth". The city itself was the site of two episodes of the War of the Spanish Succession, respectively in 1702 and 1706, during the battle of Castiglione in which the vast fortified castle was destroyed by the French troops of generals Louis Joseph of Bourbon-Vendôme and Médan under the command of the King of France Louis XIV, lined up against the Austrian Imperials. Due to the pro-French policy of its lords, accused of felony against the empire, the principality was occupied by the imperial troops in 1691 and in fact subjected to the authority of the emperor of Austria following kidnapping in 1708 (the citizens of Indeed, in that year Castiglione swore absolute loyalty to the Emperor Joseph I of Habsburg). In 1773 the Duke Luigi III Gonzaga, pretender of the state, renounced any sovereign right in favor of Austria definitively also over the Duchy of Solferino and the lordship of Medole: Castiglione therefore acquired the title of "principality" in the Habsburg and Austrian Empire of Maria Theresa and Joseph II. On August 5, 1796, the battle of Castiglione took place during Napoleon's first campaign in Italy against the Austrians. From the Restoration (1815), Austrian rule lasted until the famous battle of Solferino and San Martino (1859) was fought nearby during the Second Italian War of Independence, which marked a fundamental stage in the history of the Risorgimento, and inspired the young man Henry Dunant to the creation of one of the most important humanitarian associations: the International Red Cross, an idea that took shape in 1864 in Geneva. At the end of the Second Italian War of Independence, Castiglione became part of the province of Brescia, becoming the capital of the district of Castiglione delle Stiviere. In 1866, with the Third Italian War of Independence, what remained of the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, including the province of Mantua in the territory reduced in 1859. In 1868 the district of Castiglione delle Stiviere was dismembered, assigning most of the territory to the province of Mantua, which thus returned to its historical borders.

How to orient yourself

The beating heart of the city and the starting point for visiting its monuments can be Piazza San Luigi, overlooked by the basilica of San Luigi. The points of interest in the city center can all be easily reached on foot.

How to get

• 45.6661869.7018081 Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (the Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto 13, Orio al Serio, ☎ 39 035 326323. 
• 45.42555610.3269442 Brescia-Montichiari Airport (Gabriele D'Annunzio), Via Aeroporto, 34, Montichiari (BS), ☎ 39 030 9656599, fax: 39 030 9656514. Charter only 
• 45.39666710.8877783 Verona-Villafranca Airport (Valerio Catullo), Boxes of Sommacampagna (VR), ☎ 39 045 8095666, fax: 39 045 8619074. 

By car

• Brenner motorway: exit Mantua north, then direction Brescia, then Marmirolo, Goito is Guide it
• Serenissima motorway: exit Desenzano del Garda, then towards Castiglione delle Stiviere

On the train

• 45.4625510.536144 Desenzano del Garda railway station, Einaudi square. Served by Frecciabianca for Milano Centrale, Torino Porta Susa, Trieste Centrale and Venezia Santa Lucia; from Frecciarossa to Brescia and Roma Termini and from regional to Milano Centrale and Verona Porta Nuova. 

By bus

Service performed by APAM.

How to get around

By public transport

Service performed by APAM.

By taxi

• Baldovin taxi, Via Monterosso, 9 / B, ☎ 39 335 5335989. 

What see

In the city

• 45.3899610.488341 Sanctuary Basilica of San Luigi, Piazza San Luigi, ☎ 39 0376 638139, @[email protected]. Built in 1608 at the behest of the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga, third Marquis of Castiglione and brother of the future saint. The interior has a single nave according to the spirit of the decrees of the Council of Trent, so that the attention of the faithful was concentrated on the altar and the celebrant. Among the works of art kept in the basilica, it is worth mentioning the fresco representing the glory of St. Louis by the Veronese painter Giorgio Anselmi, from 1740 and, in a chapel on the left, is an altarpiece from 1650, The pity, the work of Guercino. The bodies of the venerable Cinzia, Olimpia and Gridonia Gonzaga, nephews of St. Louis and founders of the order of the Virgins of Jesus, are exhibited in a side chapel on the right. skull of the saint. above which there is the eighteenth-century altarpiece by the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra. which depicts St. Louis praying before the Virgin. In 1991 Pope John Paul II prayed in the basilica on the occasion of his pastoral visit. 

• 10.3917545.487152 Duomo, Piazzale Duomo, ☎ 39 0376 638037, @[email protected]. The current building was built in 1761 in neoclassical style on a hill and on the ruins of a 16th century church; Luigi Gonzaga, the future saint, was baptized in the pre-existing church on 20 April 1568 and in 1580 he received his first communion from the hands of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo. For the eighteenth-century reconstruction, material from the demolition of the castle of Castiglione was also used. During the battle of Solferino and San Martino on June 24, 1859, the church was used as a hospital for the care of the numerous wounded. There was one of the first to provide relief Henry Dunant, which led to the idea of ​​founding the International Red Cross. In front of the main altar is the tombstone of Marta Tana, mother of St. Louis. Next to the cathedral stands the small Church of the Disciplini, founded by Aloisio Gonzaga, grandfather of the Saint, in the first half of the sixteenth century and dear to the history of the Gonzagas of Castiglione. 

• 45.3906310.487123 College of the Noble Virgins of Jesus and Aloisian Historical Museum, Via Perati, 8, ☎ 39 0376 638062, fax: 39 0376 671226, @[email protected]. 5,00 €. June-October: Saturday and Sunday only with guided tours 10.00 - 12.00, 15.00 - 18.00, November-May: Saturday and Sunday only with guided tours 10.00 - 12.00, 14.00 - 17.00, from Tuesday to Friday by reservation only. It is located in the sixteenth-century palace of the Aliprandi, which since 1608 has housed the female congregation of the Virgins of Jesus. The museum houses a lot of religious material concerning the life of St. Luigi Gonzaga and a collection of paintings on the main members of his family, the Gonzaga of Castiglione. 

• 45.3921510.4934 Gonzaga castle and walls, Via San Carlo Borromeo, ☎ 39 0376 636288. It is a military structure probably built in the 9th century on a pre-existing one Roman castrum on the top of a hill overlooking the town. It was the residence of the Gonzaga Lords of Castiglione. With Ferrante Gonzaga, 1st Marquis of Castiglione, the castle became the seat of his court. Within these walls, on March 9, 1568, St. Louis was born. Francesco Gonzaga, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, provided for a modernization of his apartments. The building suffered irreparable damage in 1706 during the battle of Castiglione when the French armies, retreating, partially demolished the structure. The demolition was completed in 1763 with the use of the material for the construction of the Cathedral. Today the access tower of the castle has remained intact and inside the courtyard the basilica of San Sebastiano, built by Ferrante Gonzaga as a token of thanks for having escaped the plague. The structure is managed by the Parish of Castiglione delle Stiviere, which has made it the headquarters of the San Luigi al Castello Parish Center. 

• 45.3892910.492395 ^{[link not working]}International Red Cross Museum, Via Garibaldi, 50, ☎ 39 0376 638505, @[email protected]. 5,00 €. 1st April-31st October: 9-12 / 15-18, 1st November-31st March: 9-12 / 14 -17, Closed: all non-holiday Mondays. It was the extraordinary relief work provided by the women of Castiglione to the wounded in the battles of Solferino and Medole that inspired Henry Dunant from Geneva to design the Red Cross. The defeat of the Austrians by the Franco-Sardinian army and the start of the process that would lead to the unification of Italy were paid with 40,000 wounded, many of whom were transported to Castiglione from the evening of 24 June 1859. Here the priest Don Lorenzo Barziza coordinated the relief works, transforming churches, monuments and private homes into temporary hospitals. Twelve were set up in the city, of which the main one in the Cathedral. Henry Dunant, a guest in the building of the Bondoni Pastorio family, concretized the principle of equality of war wounded and neutrality of rescuers, conceiving the Red Cross, whose convention was signed in Geneva on 22 August 1864 by representatives of 12 governments.
  

Inside the museum are preserved objects and documents that commemorate the birth and development of the International Red Cross. The collection consists of means of transport used by the Red Cross, such as litters, stretchers and ambulances, as well as various objects used in first aid, such as surgical instruments and material for dressings. The collections are completed by an important archive of films and photographs. Among the valuable pieces preserved in the museum is the original text written by Henry Dunant in 1862 for the book A memory of Solferino. 

Out of town

• 45.3982510.506496 Convent of Santa Maria, Via Santa Maria della Costa, Location Santa Maria - Castiglione delle Stiviere, ☎ 39 0376 638062, fax: 39 0376 671226, @[email protected]. Located in the heart of the hills around Castiglione delle Stiviere, in an area already inhabited in Roman times, it was founded by the hermit Father Girolamo Redini of Castel Goffredo, tutor of the Congregation of the Hermits of Santa Maria in Gonzaga and erected near the ruins of the Roman villa, of which significant finds remain. It was remodeled in the early sixteenth century by the Marquis Luigi Gonzaga, grandfather of San Luigi, who donated it to the Friars Minor of San Francesco, called "Zoccolanti", after the abandonment of the convent by the Hermits of Santa Maria. It became the favorite holiday resort of the Marquis Ferrante Gonzaga and his wife Marta Tana, who was initially buried here and in 1804 moved to the cathedral of Castiglione delle Stiviere. Within its walls in 1584 St. Luigi Gonzaga retired there in prayer, after repeated clashes with his father Ferrante for his intention to embrace the religious life. His cell was converted into a chapel in his honor. Deconsecrated in 1798, it suffered very heavy damage in the following years which led to the demolition of a part of the building and of the church. The only wing that survives today, and which is still visible, was used solely for the Gonzaga family. The property since 1846 belongs to the College of the Noble Virgins of Jesus.  

• 45.40571910.4986177 Church of Santa Maria della Rosa (Ghisiola Church), Ghisiola locality. The church, set in a landscape that inspires meditation, stands in an isolated position in the hills of the city and is located in Ghisiola, a Mantuan dialect word corresponding to a small church. presbytery, dates back to around 1450. The completion took place in 1600, thanks to the lengthening of the nave which took place in 1520, the construction of the dome, the bell tower and two lateral bodies. There are many frescoes inside, found during the restoration that took place in the 1970s and 1980s, including a Madonna with child and a Crucifixion.  

Events and parties

• Feast of San Luigi Gonzaga (in mid-June of each year), @[email protected]. Celebrations in honor of the saint, a native of Castiglione, to remember his memory. Among the events, the Corsa del Palio, a challenge between the districts of the city. 

What to do

• 45.3965710.485881 Castiglione swimming center, Via don Mazzolari, 2, ☎ 39 0376 632772, @[email protected]. 
• 45.3925710.469982 Action Club gym, Via Toscanini, 41, ☎ 39 0376 671986. 

Shopping

• 45.3916310.490971 Weekly market (Saturday morning). 

How to have fun

Theaters

• 45.3916710.49191 Social Theater, Via Teatro, 1 (Theater season 2017-2018), ☎ 39 0376 679276. tickets can be purchased from 17.00 to 19.00 at the box office in the three days before the show and the same day from 17.00 to 19.00 and from 20.30 to 21.00. It was inaugurated in 1843. 

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• 45.3839710.492321 iBar - Touch and Taste, Via Mazzini, 55C, ☎ 39 340 2822022. 

Average prices

• 45.3663710.493352 Corte Gaia farmhouse, Via Medole, 75, ☎ 39 0376 632541. 
• 45.3801310.509043 Hostaria Viola, Via Verdi 32, Fontane locality, ☎ 39 0376 670000. 
• 45.3928310.489834 Osteria da Pietro, Via Chiassi 19, ☎ 39 0376 673718. 
• 45.3946710.491535 Trattoria Paola, Via Porta Lago 23, ☎ 39 0376 638829. 

High prices

• 45.3908910.490766 Hostaria of the Theater, Via B. Ordanino, 5B, ☎ 39 0376 670813. 

Where stay

Average prices

• 45.3744910.508311 Dunant Hotel, Via Blood Donors, 2, ☎ 39 0376 673449, @[email protected]. 
• 45.3891110.505142 La Grotta Hotel, Via dei Mandorli, 22, ☎ 39 0376 671299, @[email protected]. 

Safety

• 45.3829510.491975 Carabinieri, Via Torquato Tasso, 1, ☎ 39 0376 861900. 
• 45.3751710.5118326 Fire fighters, Via Solferino 18, Castiglione delle Stiviere, ☎ 39 0376 672464. 
• 45.3891410.490857 Municipal police, Via Battisti, 29G, ☎ 39 0376 679228. 
• 45.38850310.4936368 San Pellegrino Hospital, Via Garibaldi, Castiglione delle Stiviere, ☎ 39 0376 6351. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 45.3930510.488129 Italian post, Republic square, ☎ 39 0376 675311. 

Keep informed

Newspapers and magazines

• 45.3919710.4899910 The Gazzettino Nuovo, Via Marconi 2 - Castiglione delle Stiviere, ☎ 39 0376 631709, @[email protected]. Information weekly for the provinces of Mantua and Brescia. 
• 45.413610.3912711 Montichiari news, Via Mazzoldi 8 - Montichiari, ☎ 39 030 964224. Information weekly for the provinces of Mantua and Brescia - Chronicle of Castiglione. 
• 45.1476210.7966912 Journal of Mantua, Piazza Cesare Mozzarelli, 7 - Mantua, ☎ 39 0376 3031. Newspaper - Chronicle of Castiglione. 
• 45.1600210.7965113 The Voice of Mantua, Piazza Sordello, 12 - Mantua, ☎ 39 0376 222266. Newspaper - Chronicle of Castiglione. 
• 45.5334910.2175114 Blue area, Via XX Settembre. 30 - Brescia, ☎ 39 030 3776552, @[email protected]. Fortnightly information on the areas bordering Lake Garda and Alto Mantovano - Chronicle Alto Mantovano. 

Televisions

• 45.1668710.8273615 Tele Mantova, Via Pietro Verri, 27 - Mantua (Channels 19-619-690), ☎ 39 0376 254311. Television of Mantua and its province. 

Around

Neighboring municipalities
Montichiari	Desenzano del Garda	Solferino
Carpenedolo		Guide it
Casalmoro	Castel Goffredo	Medole

• Monte Medolano is Monte Medolano Park - Small relief formed in the Pleistocene, due to its position it was the scene of numerous military events, including three important battles, in different eras, in which French and Austrian alignments were invariably measured, always with a French victory.
• Lake Garda - It is one of the great Lombard lakes; the eastern shore is Venetian, the tip to the north it is thirty. A destination for climatic tourism since the nineteenth century, every coastal town lives and develops with tourism. Main destinations are Sirmione (Grottoes of Catullus), Desenzano del Garda, Salò, Riva del Garda, Garda, Peschiera del Garda.
• Solferino - The famous battle of the Risorgimento on June 24, 1859, which saw the Austrians defeated, handed down the name of the town to history, like the nearby center of Saint martin. The Risorgimento Museum recalls the epic of those years, together with the Ossuary which houses the bones of 7,000 fallen from that carnage. The town also preserves a fortress and a Gonzaga castle.
• San Martino della Battaglia- Contemporary to that of Solferino, the Risorgimento battle linked in the town's toponym saw the defeat of the Austrians during the second war of Independence. On the hill of the confrontation there is a commemorative tower; an ossuary holds thousands of remains of fallen soldiers from the opposing armies.
• Castellaro Lagusello - Ancient fortified village from the 12th century, it stands on a hill overlooking a heart-shaped lake. It was long disputed by the lords of the time: Bonacolsi, Scaligeri, Visconti, Gonzaga and the Republic of Venice. Since 2011 the resort Tacoli Fund of its territory has become part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the supranational site named Ancient settlements in the Alps.
• Castel Goffredo - The industrialized "city of the sock" of modern times has a past as a Gonzaga capital which has endowed it with an important historic center; the squares, the arcades, the churches, the palaces permeate it with the unmistakable atmosphere that characterizes the urban planning of the Gonzagas.

Itineraries

• Castiglione delle Stiviere is part of the Route of Mantuan Wines and Flavors, a path of food and wine tourism promotion, about 300 kilometers long and recognized by the Lombardy Region, which winds through province of Mantua on a territory of 41 municipalities, including: Buttonhole, Curtatone, Sabbioneta, Viadana, Mantua, Bagnolo San Vito, San Benedetto Po, Quistello, Gonzaga, San Giacomo delle Segnate, Poggio Rusco, Ostiglia, Goito, Volta Mantovana, Monzambano, Bridges over the Mincio is Cavriana. The route is intertwined with other tourist itineraries in the area: Route of Rice and Risotto Mantovani is Mantuan Truffle Road.
• In the lands of the Gonzagas - An itinerary through the centers, large and small, which were the capitals of the Gonzaga cadet branches: principalities, marquisates, duchies which, within the Mantuan state structure, enjoyed real independence, often minted coins and held refined courts that rivaled that of Mantua, embellished their urban centers by equipping them with elegant architecture - churches, squares, palaces, walls, towers - and characteristic urban views such as the typical Gonzaga arcades.
• Morainic hills of Lake Garda - On the first corrugations of the Po plain that becomes a hill, where the great lake basin of the Lake Garda, the route touches towns and cities that were the domain of Gonzaga, Venice, Scaligero, and then became the scene of the bloody battles of the Risorgimento that were the prelude to the unification of Italy. To the tourist, historical and naturalistic importance the area combines an oenological interest as a production area of wines from the hills, tokai, merlot and claret.
• Places of the battle of Solferino and San Martino - The itinerary runs through the places where the historic one took place on 24 June 1859 battle of Solferino and San Martino.
• Rural churches and oratories of Castel Goffredo - The itinerary, entirely in the green countryside rich in waterways, runs through the numerous places of worship, which boast ancient traditions and are the sign of a widespread religiosity, since the sixteenth century.
• Way of faith and solidarity - The itinerary runs through the places where two saints lived, St. Luigi Gonzaga is Saint Angela Merici, and a blessed one, Paola Montaldi; where important pages of the Risorgimento and saw the birth of the Red Cross.
• Via Carolingia - European itinerary that crosses the places traveled by the court of Charlemagne between the 8th and 9th centuries to travel from Aachen to Rome, where Pope Leo III crowned the Carolingian sovereign emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas night in the 19th century.
• Romanesque churches of the Riviera del Garda - The itinerary goes to the discovery of the parishes and churches of the Romanesque Brescia.
• Towers and castles of the Alto Mantovano

Useful information

Tourist information

• 45.3903910.4877416 Infopoint Castiglione delle Stiviere, Via Marta Tana, 1, ☎ 39 0376 944061. Thursday-Friday-Saturday: from 14.30 to 17.00, Sunday: from 10.00 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 17.00. 

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Castiglione delle Stiviere
• Commons contains images or other files on Castiglione delle Stiviere

Usable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but in addition it contains enough information to allow a short visit to the city. Use i correctly listing (the right type in the right sections).