Point of interest

The 14th-century Scaliger Tower stands on a hill 200 metres above sea level. Due to its dominant position, it served as a lookout and was designated as a trigonometric point, i.e. unequivocally visible from other places. The tower had been identified for this purpose to measure distances to other points during the drafting of the map of Italy by the Military Geographical Institute that was completed in 1902.

It has four mullioned openings supported by brick columns and Ghibelline merlons at the corners of the roof covered with tiles. In the belfry there are nine bells, a full concert is played by award-winning bell ringers who perform using the Veronese method. On the south and west sides, there are clocks. There are traces of a St Mark’s lion, the symbol of the Venetian Republic that ruled over these lands from 1405 to 1796. The tower is said to have been part of a fortification with four other towers; in fact, during the land works, to the west of the tower itself, an old wall was discovered connecting it to the nearby building known as “il Castello”, now Villa Manzati. The massive complex still has two crenellated towers on the east and west sides and, being strategically located on the last morainic hill sloping towards the Po Valley, was once, like the tower, an important lookout point. Inside, some rooms are decorated with 18th-century frescoes depicting rural scenes.