Lonato del Garda

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Lonato
coat of arms
Lonato (Italy)
Lonato
Country Italy
region Lombardy
province Brescia  (BS)
Coordinates 45 ° 28 ′  N , 10 ° 29 ′  E Coordinates: 45 ° 28 ′ 0 ″  N , 10 ° 29 ′ 0 ″  E
height 170  m slm
surface 70 km²
Residents 16,812 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 240 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 25017
prefix 030
ISTAT number 017092
Popular name lonatesi
Patron saint San Giovanni Battista (June 24th)
Website www.comune.lonato.bs.it
View over the old town with the cathedral and Torre Maestra
Casa del Podestà
Santa Maria del Corlo church, vaults with pseudo-architecture

Lonato del Garda (until June 30, 2007: Lonato ) is a town on Lake Garda with 16,812 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the province of Brescia in the Italian region of Lombardy .

history

The fortress hill, which emerged from a terminal moraine of a side branch of the Ice Age Adige Glacier , defines the cityscape when viewed from the direction of Desenzano . The existence of a castle in this strategically important place on the border between Verona and Brescia was mentioned as early as 909 . For centuries, Scaliger and Visconti , Venetians and Milanese fought over town and castle. Defensive walls were built under the rule of the Visconti of Milan , and the castle complex reached its current size. Venetian generals saw this as the model of a fortress. The complex only lost its importance in the 19th century and was partially demolished.

Lonato fell to Mantua with the Cambrai League victory . During this time (1509) Isabella d'Este Gonzaga , whose court was the center of social life in Italy at that time, visited the city. Her much-quoted letters provide a picture of this trip, during which she and her entourage were supposed to promote the politics of the city-state of Mantua. Lonato, however, belonged to Venice again a few years later (1516) and until 1798 the lion stood on a column in front of the Palazzo Municipale.

Between 1870 and 1875, the remains of a pile dwelling settlement from the Early and Middle Bronze Age were uncovered in a peat pit in the Polada moorland . The artefacts found there are assigned to an independent archaeological culture and called the Polada culture after the eponymous site . The latter also includes the remains of the pile dwelling settlement of Lavagnone, which lies on the municipal border with Desenzano del Garda and was discovered a few years later.

Attractions

Below the 55 m high Maestra tower from 1555, which towers above the city, is the Piazza Matteotti, a small market square, from which a passage leads to the Piazza Centrale, the second, larger square. It is bordered to the west by the Palazzo Municipale, in front of whose open portico the said St. Mark's Lion still stands in its place on a high column.

town hall

The Palazzo Municipale was built in 1769 and restored in 1938. The monumental painting "The Plague", which Andrea Celesti painted in 1693 and which commemorates the end of the plague of 1630, hangs in the council chamber . It is open to the public on working days in the mornings.

Lonato Basilica

Opposite the town hall, in the midst of closely standing old town houses, there is the elevated facade and the dome of the basilica. The baroque church was built between 1738 and 1780 and is dedicated to John the Baptist. Formally, the church structure is based closely on the cathedral in Brescia , also in Venice , but is a little smaller.

Casa del Podestà

The path to the ruins of the fortress leads past the Torre Maestra and the medieval Casa del Podestà, the former house of the Venetian city administrator. The completely dilapidated building was acquired in 1906 by the lawyer, politician and citizen of Lonato, Senator Ugo da Como. He set up his home and study here, in which he surrounded himself with evidence of Northern Italian history and art. Today the house and castle are owned by the Ugo da Como Foundation.

In 1920 the landlord had an entire house built opposite the Casa as a library for his precious collection. It contains over 50,000 historical books, incunabula (one of the most valuable collections in Italy) and manuscripts, including illustrated Bibles and rare editions of legal codes. In the Foundation's museum (i.e. in the Podestà's house) you can see frescoes by Floriano Ferramola , paintings, antique furniture , porcelain, pewter and copper objects and drawings, including some by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Appiani .

fortress

Even Napoleon was impressed by the castle fortifications of Lonato. Nowadays, the ruins on the fortress hill mainly consist of ramified masonry remains and some foundation walls inside. The irregular, triangular-like plan is on average around 45 m wide and almost 180 m long. The facility consists of two bodies built at different heights, the so-called "Rocchetta" and the slightly lower part, which is called the headquarters.

Santa Maria del Corlo church

The church of Santa Maria del Corlo on the northern outskirts was rebuilt around 1500 and still contains remains of the previous building. Gothic frescos from around 1300 can be found on both sides of the entrance portal. The rest of the church interior is characterized by the Brescian Renaissance of the 16th century. The vault in particular is decorated with biblical scenes in impressive pseudo-architecture . On the altar is a painting by Alessandro Moretto , which was created around 1500.

San Zeno Church

Also on the northern outskirts is the Romanesque church of San Zeno on a hill. The first castle of the village, mentioned in a document in 909, stood on this hill. It formed the center of what was then the city center, which was abandoned around 1200. What remains was the former parish church, built around 1150, a Romanesque building with an apse made of large sandstone blocks.

Monasteries

There is a Catholic and an Orthodox monastery in Lonato.

Picture gallery

  • Romanesque church of San Zeno

  • Casa del Podestà

  • Dom

  • Marketplace

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ About the Orthodox Monastery of St. Michael the Archangel Gardanotizie (Italian)

literature

  • Walter Pippke, Ida Leinberger: Lake Garda, Verona, Trentino ; Art guide. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1998, 2nd edition 2000, ISBN 3-7701-4343-4 , p. 112.

Web links

Commons : Lonato  - album with pictures, videos and audio files