The Via del Principe - La Via del Principe

The Via del Principe
(Mantua)
Ducal Palace
Itinerary typePedestrian
Stateflag Italy
RegionLombardy
TerritoryMantuan
CityMantua

The Via del Principe is an itinerary that takes place through the city of Mantua, in Lombardy.

Introduction

Connect the two extreme points of the Old Town and retraces the itinerary that i Gonzaga, lords of Mantua, used to perform from their palaces in the city center to outside the walls at Palazzo Te.

How to get

By plane

The nearest airports are:

By car

welcome to Mantua

A22 motorway Autobrennero:

  • 5 Mantova Nord toll booth. 
  • 6 Mantova Sud exit. 

On the train

  • 7 Mantua station, Don Leoni square (routes Verona Porta Nuova-Mantua, Modena-Mantua, Milan Central-Cremona-Mantua, Monselice-Mantua.). Direct trains once a day also from Bologna Central, Parma is VeniceMestre. 

By bus

The connections with the city are carried out by the company APAM and from ATV.

By bike

More information on how to get around by bicycle on this site.
Here you find the complete map of cycle paths.

Useful parking for the itinerary

Free

  • 8 Canoe camp. Ecb copyright.svgfree parking. 
  • 9 Viale Mincio (Near Piazza Sordello). Ecb copyright.svgfree parking. 
  • 10 Viale Te (Near Palazzo Te). Ecb copyright.svgfree parking. 

Stages

Castle of San Giorgio
Andrea Mantegna, Chamber of the Spouses
  • 11 Castle of San Giorgio and Camera degli Sposi - Erected to defend the old city on the rubble of the Church of Santa Maria di Capo di Bove in 1395 by the military architect Bartolino da Novara for Francesco I Gonzaga, it preserves in the corner tower embattled to the north the famous 12 Room of the Spouses (Picta room), one of the most important frescoes of the Renaissance by Andrea Mantegna commissioned by the Marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga between 1465 and 1474. There are numerous rooms that make up the building, almost all richly frescoed: the Sala dei Soli, the Sala di Mezzo, the Sale delle Cappe, the Sala della Grotta, the Sala delle Armi, the apartment of Isabella d'Este. The castle is connected to the Palazzo Ducale with the sixteenth-century Scalone di Enea, the work of Bertani. Following the Austrian occupation of the city, from 1815 the castle became a maximum security prison in which opponents were closed. In 1852 the Martyrs of Belfiore were locked up in the castle. The 2012 Emilia earthquake caused damage to the building, which was reopened on 3 April 2015 after structural and anti-seismic adaptation.
  • 13 National archeologic museum - The museum is located within the perimeter of the Doge's Palace. Inside, finds ranging from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to the Etruscan, Celtic and Roman times, all materials found in the Mantuan. Since 11 April 2014 they have found their definitive accommodation inside a crystal glass case Lovers of Valdaro, two Neolithic skeletons found near Mantua in 2007, so named because the two skeletons, a man and a woman, were found embraced.
Ducal Palace
  • 14 Palazzo Ducale (Reggia dei Gonzaga) - The two arcaded buildings (Magna domus is Captain's Palace) overlooking piazza Sordello date back to the end of the 13th century and are part of the Gonzaga palace. It covers an area of ​​approximately 34,000 m² and has approximately 500 rooms. The Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara and the Castle of San Giorgio are also part of the complex. The interior has a remarkable variety of rooms and give the idea of ​​the pomp of the Gonzaga court. There are valuable works of art by important masters. Among these Pisanello, with the fresco of Battle of Louvezerp (1436-1444). The palace is divided into several apartments, built in different historical periods: Apartment e Studiolo by Isabella d'Este in Corte Vecchia, Apartment of the Tapestries, Apartment of the Guastalla, Apartment of the Empress, Apartment of Guglielmo in Corte Vecchia, Apartment of Eleonora de 'Medici, Apartment of the Metamorphoses, Apartment of the Rustica. The staircase of Aeneas, built by Bertani in 1549, connects the Palazzo Ducale with the Castle of San Giorgio.
  • 15 Sordello square - The Duomo, Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Vescovile, Cà degli Uberti, Palazzo Bonacolsi-Castiglioni and Palazzo Acerbi overlook this square, dominated by the Tower of the Cage.
  • 16 Broletto square - The Palazzo del Podestà and the Arengario are present.
Palazzo del Podestà
  • 17 Palazzo del Podestà - Since 2013 under restoration. Built in the 12th century, it was remodeled in the 15th century by Luca Fancelli, Florentine architect of the Gonzaga court. The palace was the seat of the city government at the time of the free municipality. On the facade stands the representative statue of the thirteenth century Virgil in the chair, nicknamed "la vecia" by the Mantuan people. It underwent renovations and architectural changes also due to the numerous fires that occurred over the centuries. From 1462 it underwent a major restructuring by Giovanni da Arezzo on behalf of Ludovico II Gonzaga. Of the time and linked to the taste of Luca Fancelli, is the blind battlements crowning the building, transformed at the behest of the Marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga. In the last three centuries it has been destined for various uses including that of prison. In the current projects of the Municipality of Mantua, the Palace will also be restored to house the Town Hall, returning to be the administrative center of the city. Currently (2020) it is under renovation.
  • 18 Piazza delle Erbe - The ancient market square flanked by arcades.
Palace of the Reason
  • 19 Palace of the Reason - Fourteenth-century building with three-mullioned windows and merlons with a fifteenth-century portico, under restoration since 2013. At the time of the Gonzagas, the building was the seat of the Court of Justice and the notary archive. Prestigious exhibition site of the Civic Museums of Mantua, it hosts important art exhibitions organized by the municipal administration. In the hall, the remains of frescoes from the end of the 12th century are visible on the walls.
  • 20 Clock tower - It was built by Luca Fancelli in 1473. The astronomical clock is the work of Bartolomeo Manfredi. In the center stands a niche with the statue of the Madonna, from around 1640. Inside, it is possible to admire the mechanisms of the clock machine, but also the panorama of Mantua that opens up on the top floor of the tower, looking out over the lakes that surround the city.
  • 21 Rotunda of San Lorenzo - It is the oldest church in Mantua. Circular in Romanesque style that tradition has it was built in the eleventh century by Countess Matilde di Canossa. Inside, ten large columns create a ring-shaped nave, on whose vaults there are frescoes from the 11th and 13th centuries.
  • 22 Piazza Mantegna - The basilica of Sant'Andrea overlooks the square.
Basilica of Sant'Andrea
  • 23 Basilica of Sant'Andrea - Masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it was built starting from 1472 on a design by Leon Battista Alberti and completed in two stages by Luca Fancelli. The baroque dome was added by Filippo Juvara in 1732. On the left of the façade, inspired by classicism, stands the Gothic bell tower, which belonged to the previous church. The grandiose interior with a barrel vault, is a Latin cross and a single nave. There are several chapels on the sides of the nave, among which, the first on the left, is the tomb of the painter Andrea Mantegna, who died in Mantua in 1506 and contains a bronze bust of him and The holy families, by Mantegna himself. The Baptism of Jesus it is the work of Francesco Mantegna, son of the master. The frescoes that adorn the tomb and the dome are the work of the sons of Mantegna and Correggio.
  • 24 Marconi Square -
  • 25 Via Roma -
  • 26 Via Principe Amedeo -
  • 27 Via Acerbi -
  • 28 Church of San Sebastiano - Begun in 1460 by Luca Fancelli on a project by Leon Battista Alberti, it was completed in 1529. Today it is used as a famine for the fallen.
  • 29 Casa del Mantegna - It is a building that Andrea Mantegna built starting from the year 1476 in Mantua, on land donated to him by the Marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga, perhaps a prize for the frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi. The date of this donation is that of October 18, 1476. The architectural design is characterized by a perfect geometric design: a circle included in a square in which the cylindrical courtyard is enclosed in a square building. Connected by a circular path, the rooms face with arched doors or windows on the courtyard in the shape of a circle, an evident modern revival of the atrium of a domus Roman.
Palace of San Sebastiano
  • 30 Largo XXIV Maggio -
  • 31 Palace of San Sebastiano - It was built between 1506 and 1508 to be the favorite residence of the Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga, who died there in 1519. Gerolamo Arcari and Bernardino Ghisolfo directed the work and were in charge of the interior decorations were painters such as Lorenzo Leonbruno, Matteo and Lorenzo Costa the Elder. In the upper hall there were the nine paintings by Mantegna] depicting the Triumphs of Caesar, now kept in Hampton Court near London. Already after the client's death, while remaining a stately home, the palace no longer had the privileged role recognized by Francis II: the most precious furnishings and paintings were transferred to another location, and the residence was given to the side branches of the family, such as the "Gonzaga di Novellara", Gazzuolo and Castiglione delle Stiviere.
  • 32 Piazzale Vittorio Veneto -
Palazzo Te
  • 33 Palazzo Te - The Gonzaga villa, commissioned for the idleness of the Marquis Federico II Gonzaga, was built by Giulio Romano starting from 1525 with the collaboration of various artists, including Primaticcio, Nicolò da Milano and Rinaldo Mantovano. Inside there are numerous frescoed rooms among which the Sale del Sole, the Sala delle Imprese, the Sala dei Cavalli, the Sala dei Venti and the famous Sala dei Giganti stand out. At the bottom of the garden are the Casino della Grotta, the Sala di Attilio Regolo, a loggia and the secret garden.

Safety

Around

Excursions

Morainic hills of Lake Garda
  • 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, Desenzano del Garda, Salò, Riva del Garda, Garda, Peschiera del Garda.
  • Cremona - It has a monumental historic center - the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Town Hall - one of the most distinguished in Lombardy. It was a Roman city. It was powerful at the time of the Communes and rivaled Milan, which finally subdued it. His violins (Stradivari and Amati), his Torrazzo and even more his torrone, are known everywhere.

Itineraries

  • In the lands of the Gonzaga - The itinerary, from north to south, runs through the places where the lords of Mantua, i Gonzaga, had the capitals of their small states, between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.
  • 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 an area of ​​production of wines from the hills, tokai, merlot and claret.
2-4 star.svgUsable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but also contains enough information to allow the itinerary to be carried out.