Stop 1: Teatro Sociale di Montova
The Teatro Sociale di Mantua was built between 1818 and 1822. Its façade, recently restored and brought
back to its original beauty, is low and wide but maintains the majesty of a Greek temple thanks to the six columns
supporting a triangular pediment. The Social Theater can accommodate around nine hundred spectators. It has an audience, three
tiers of boxes, and two galleries.
Stop 2: Piazza delle Erbe
Piazza delle Erbe, also known as Piazza Broletto, has ancient origins dating back to Roman times when it served as a forum, a central
gathering place for the city's inhabitants. The Piazza becomes a market place once a week on Thursdays.
Palazzo della Ragione served as the city's law court and meeting hall. The palace features
a large clock tower (Torre Dell'Orologio.)
Rotonda di San Lorenzo is the most ancient church in the city. It is now sunk below the level of the Piazza della Erbe. It
probably stands on the site of a Roman temple that was dedicated to the goddess Venus. It was built during the reign of the Canossa
family in the late 11th century. Inspired by the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem, it has
a central plan and has maintained ancient features like the matronaeum (loggia for female faithful) and frescoes of the Byzantine
school from the 11th-12th century. Another fresco fragment in the apse, portraying the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, dates to the 15th
century. The construction, according to the Lombard tradition, is in bricks, but has two columns and other details in marble taken
from ancient edifices. Deconsecrated, it was used for dwellings, shops and stores, and at the beginning of the 20th century it was
covered by other edifices. Later, it was restored and the external additions removed.
Stop 3: Torre della Gabbia
The tower was built in 1281 by the Acerbi family, however, the tower takes its present name from a rectangular metal cage, erected
in 1576 under Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga. The cage measured two meters long, one meter deep and high, perched about a third of of the way up the tower.
The cage was used to publicly expose criminals. Some documents indicate it was used to execute some prisoners including, in 1500, a
Dominican friar arrested in a house of ill-repute after giving mass despite being illiterate as well as other crimes including murder.
In 1798, the owner was instructed to destroy the cage as a symbol of tyranny, but it was retained, apparently as a curiosity.
Stop 4: Piazza Sordello
Piazza Sordello is dedicated to the Mantuan troubadour of the 13th century, Sordello da Goito. The square was built in 1330, after the
demolition of some old buildings located between two parallel streets that followed the urban design of the ancient
Roman city. One street, Strada Magna, connected the Vault of San Pietro (Voltone di San Pietro) with the Cathedral, while the other street,
Strata Sanctae Mariae Matris Domini, connected to the Church of Santa Croce, later incorporated into the Ducal
Palace. For centuries, Piazza di San Pietro, as it was known then, remained the center of Mantua’s political, social and religious life.
Mantua Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di San Pietro Apostolo; Duomo di Mantova) is the seat of the Bishop of Mantua. An initial structure
probably existed on the site in the Early Christian era, which was followed by a building destroyed by a fire in 894. It was quickly re-erected
in Protoromanesque style. The church was rebuilt beginning in 1132, initially in the Romanesque style. The bell tower was
finished before 1150. The current church stands on the Romanesque church of San Pietro, of which only some wall structures and the bell tower
are preserved. It was rebuilt in 1395–1401 with the addition of side chapels and a Gothic west front. In 1395 Francesco I Gonzaga, to celebrate
the birth of his firstborn son, ordered the construction of a new facade in the Gothic style. Of this work, only the right flank of the
cathedral has survived. The façade was equipped with a prothyrum, rose windows, and pinnacles. The organ of the cathedral was built in c. 1503.
After another fire in 1545, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga commissioned a renovation of the church. The facade and
perimeter walls were left intact but the interior was substantially altered, transforming it into a form similar to the ancient early Christian
version of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The Palazzo Ducale di Mantova ("Ducal Palace") is a group of buildings built between the 14th and the 17th century mainly by the noble
family of Gonzaga as their royal residence in the capital of their Duchy. The buildings are connected by corridors and galleries and are enriched
by inner courts and wide gardens. The complex includes some 500 rooms and occupies an area of c. 34,000 m2, which make it the sixth largest palace
in Europe after the palaces of the Vatican, the Louvre Palace, the Palace of Versailles, the Royal Palace of Caserta and the Castle of Fontainebleau.
It contains seven gardens and eight courtyards, including Giardini di Piazza Lega Lombarda.
Stop 5: Basilica di Sant'Andrea
The Basilica of Sant'Andrea is one of the major works of 15th-century Renaissance architecture in Northern Italy. Commissioned by Ludovico III
Gonzaga, the church was begun in 1472 on a site occupied by a Benedictine monastery, of which the bell
tower (1414) remains. The building, however, was only finished 328 years later. Though later changes and expansions altered Alberti's design, the
church is still considered to be one of Alberti's most complete works. It looms over the Piazza Mantegna.