Point of interest

Between 1500 B.C. and 600 B.C., the pile-dwelling village of Peschiera was the centre of the culture of northern Italy and above all the bronze production hub. It is said that during the Roman period, there was an imposing square tower there in Peschiera, 9m wide, 2.5m thick, at least 25/30m high and built of marble stone. The tower had a twin on the opposite side of the Mincio river, and a bridge connecting it with the mainland in Peschiera into so-called ‘double bridgehead’ fortification work. The military-strategic position on the Via Gallica, squeezed between the lake and the marshy plains, as the only transit passage between Veneto and Lombardy, made Peschiera the desired prize for many people over the centuries. Among them were the Veronese Scaliger family in the 1200s, the Milanese Sforza in the 1300s, the Venetians in the 1500s and the Austrians in the 1800s.