Castiglione delle Stiviere

Castiglione delle Stiviere is an agricultural and industrial town situated south of Lake Garda.
It has very ancient origins, certainly the first settlement was Etruscan, which later became a castrum; in medieval times it was a Visconti possession and then a Gonzaga's, the lords of Mantova and Duke Vincenzo I, the latter beeing sent away by a popular uprising in 1690. The history of Castiglione knew some dramatic moments during the War of the Spanish Succession, when the town and castle were devastated, and again at the end of the XVIII century, when Austrian troops clashed with Napoleon's armies. Many traces of the past remain, for example in Piazza Dallò with the two neoclassical palaces that look out onto it, or again, in the precious fountain, with a statue by Calubini commissioned by Francesco Gonzaga; another town treasure is the XV century Palazzo della Pretura, formerly the seat of the vicar at the time of the Gonzagas, just like the neoclassical portal of the Teatro sociale and the XVIII century Palazzo Longhi, where the International Museum of the Red Cross can be found. In Piazza S.Luigi Gonzaga there is the Basilica di S. Luigi, of Baroque design, while in Via Marta Mana stands the Collegio delle Nobili Vergini di Gesu', where you will find the Museo storico Aloisiano, which preserves some valuable sacred works of art.