Mantova

“Somewhere, in that totality known as the universe, is a galaxy called the Milky Way. Tucked into the corner of that galaxy is a planet named Earth. On that planet is a city called Mantua. Go straight ahead, past the fountain, turn right, then left, and right again. You’ll find yourself walking along the water, listening, as a man sings of his beloved’s unfaithful heart. And even the fish begin to weep. Quando La Donna è Mobile”. — The Doctor (ST:VOY).

Mantua (Italian: Mantova) is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.

In 2016, Mantua became Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, Mantua was the European Capital of Gastronomy, included in the Eastern Lombardy District (together with the cities of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona).

In 2007, Mantua’s centro storico (old town) and Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantua’s historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family has made it one of the main artistic, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera; the city is also known for its architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces, and the medieval and Renaissance cityscape. It is the place where the composer Monteverdi premiered his opera L’Orfeo and where Romeo was banished in Shakespeare‘s play Romeo and Juliet. It is the nearest town to the birthplace of the Roman poet Virgil, who was commemorated by a statue at the lakeside park “Piazza Virgiliana”.

Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, created during the 12th century, as the city’s defence system. These lakes receive water from the Mincio River, a tributary of the Po River which descends from Lake Garda. The three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore (“Upper”, “Middle”, and “Lower” Lakes, respectively). A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which once served as a defensive water ring around the city, dried up at the end of the 18th century.

The area and its environs are important not only in naturalistic terms, but also anthropologically and historically; research has highlighted a number of human settlements scattered between Barche di Solferino and Bande di Cavriana, Castellaro and Isolone del Mincio. These dated, without interruption, from Neolithic times (5th–4th millennium BC) to the Bronze Age (2nd–1st millennium BC) and the Gallic phases (2nd–1st centuries BC), and ended with Roman residential settlements, which could be traced to the 3rd century AD.

In 2017, Legambiente ranked Mantua as the best Italian city for the quality of the life and environment.

source: Wikipedia

All pictures and images on this site (except where explicitly stated) are ©2024 Stefano Guidetti.

Some content taken from Wikipedia (see attribution at the bottom of the post/page).
Some graphics for the home page and pages header taken from Pixabay.

If you would like to reuse any of my pictures, please contact me at info@sguidetti.net

On this site we do not use profiling cookies or third parties cookies.
We do, however, use technical cookies functional to to the fruition of this site.

Privacy Policy

About me

Stefano Guidetti

Very picky IT Manager, Web Developer, Web Designer and (very) amateur photographer.
Currently employed in the educational field, working for the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

(please note: social profiles are in Italian language only)