Volta Mantovana

Centre situated at the outskirts of the Padana Plain, located on the remote morenic layer. It was an anti-Scaligero and anti-Visconti bastion, bench mark of the defense of the northern territories. This role is testified by the presence of the towers and the rests of the castle, already existing in the eleventh century. Restored various times, also by the Gonzagas, it reaches its definite shape in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In addition to the church and a small county borough, it comprised an inner fortress built around the mastio and the south tower. In the area of the Castle two Gonzaga's residences were built, Cavriani-Gonzaga's Villa today municipal centre, and Venier's Villa, Gonzaga's residence. The earlier presents an asymmetric facade of the fifteenth century with high and original fireplaces and at the exteriors, an amphitheater courtyard. It is also remarkable the Parish Church of Saint Maria Maddalena of the seventeenth century, which conserves three important paintings of a local master. Of value, the baroque Chapel dedicated to Blessed Paola, in which a Guercino's Assunta is kept. Among the main tourist attraction festivals, there is the Blessed Paola's Festival, which is held on the last Sunday of September.