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Sabbioneta


Sabbioneta, located five kilometers from the river Po, is one of the best examples of the Lombard Renaissance architectural style, closed by the mighty defensive curtain wall which can be accessed through austere and imposing monumental doors. Particularly renowned are the antiques market held every first Sunday of the month, excluding January and August, and the Sabbio Summer Fest during the summer. In Sabbioneta you can taste and buy many typical products of the Mantuan lands.
  • Village with castle
  • UNESCO heritage
  • Suitable for disabled people
  • Camper parking area
  • Most beautiful villages in Italy
  • Orange Flag Countries
Sabbioneta  | MTravelr/shutterstock
Sabbioneta
MTravelr/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  | Giovanni Di Lorenzo/shutterstock_
Sabbioneta
Giovanni Di Lorenzo/shutterstock_
  | MTravelr/shutterstock

MTravelr/shutterstock
Church of San Rocco  | Massimo Santi/shutterstock
Church of San Rocco
Massimo Santi/shutterstock
  | D-VISIONS/shutterstock

D-VISIONS/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  | 3DF mediaStudio/shutterstock
Sabbioneta
3DF mediaStudio/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  | D-VISIONS/shutterstock
Sabbioneta
D-VISIONS/shutterstock
Gallery of the Ancients and the Pallas-Athena column  | D-VISIONS/shutterstock
Gallery of the Ancients and the Pallas-Athena column
D-VISIONS/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  | MTravelr/shutterstock
Sabbioneta
MTravelr/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  | 3DF mediaStudio/shutterstock
Sabbioneta
3DF mediaStudio/shutterstock
Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta  | AMB/shutterstock
Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta
AMB/shutterstock
Sabbioneta  |
Sabbioneta
A look at Sabbioneta
A look at Sabbioneta

About the village

The village of Sabbioneta (Sabiùnèda in the Casalasco-Viadanese dialect), one of the most beautiful towns in Lombardy, is crossed by the 45th parallel. Its name derives from the Latin sabulum, sand. The city was founded by Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna between 1554/1556 and 1591, the year of his death, in the place where there stood a fortress of his grandfather Ludovico and an ancient settlement. Placed on an alluvial ground between the Po and Oglio rivers, as well as along the route of the ancient Via Vitelliana, it occupied a strategic position in the heart of the Po Valley. For Vespasiano Gonzaga, Sabbioneta had to be above all a fortress and the power of its wall circuit certainly made it, at that time, one of the most armed bulwarks of Lombardy of Spanish domination. Sabbioneta was above all the capital of a small State placed among the great regional states: the Duchy of Milan to the west, ruled by the Spanish governorship at that time, the Duchy of Mantua to the east over the river Oglio, governed by the primeval line of the Gonzagas, cousins ​​of Vespasiano, and the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza to the south of the Po, dominated by the Farnese family, supportive and friend of Gonzaga himself. The territory of the small state of Sabbioneta was mainly concentrated to the eastern ramification of the diocese of Cremona and constituted a forced crossroads both for the commercial traffic in the middle course of the Po, and for the communications between the lower Brescia and Emilia. The most prosperous period in the history of the city was in the years of its rebuilding, under the rule of the prince Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna, of which it became the residence.

The town, built according to the humanistic principles of the ideal city, houses within it several monuments such as the Palazzo Ducale or Palazzo Grande, ducal residence and place for the administration of the State, the Teatro all'Antica or Teatro Olimpico (1590) designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, the first theatrical building of the modern era built specifically for this function, the Gallery of the Ancients or Corridor Grande, appointed to host the collection of ancient marbles as well as the hunting trophies, the Palazzo Giardino or Casino, a place dedicated to the otium and valuablely redeveloped between 1582 and 1587 by Bernardino Campi and his team of collaborators, the churches of the Assunta, Incoronata, del Carmine, the Synagogue and the historic Jewish quarter, today no longer inhabited by a community, with its activities of printing, founded in 1567 by Tobias Foa. Noteworthy in the area are the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in the hamlet of Villa Pasquali designed by Ferdinando Galli da Bibbiena and built by his son Antonio Galli and the small Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie in Vigoreto formerly annexed to the Capuchin convent.

In 1970 Sabbioneta filming was made of the film Strategia del spno by Bernardo Bertolucci. On the occasion of the film, the town assumes the imaginary name of Tara. More recently (eighties) in Sabbioneta were also made the shooting of the film I Promessi Sposi and between the columns of the Galleria degli Antichi, the scene of the "Pest" is filmed. Also for the French film Marquise, released in 1997 under the direction of Vera Belmont, some scenes were shot at Sabbioneta.

Village of Sabbioneta
Municipality of Sabbioneta
Province of Mantova
Lombardy region

Population: 4,251 sabbionetani
Pop. foreign resident: 385

The Municipality is part of:
I Borghi più belli d'Italia
Paesi bandiera arancione

Acknowledgments
Orange Flag - Italian Touring Club

Unesco site:
Mantova e Sabbioneta

Municipality
Piazza Ducale 2 - phone +39 0375-223001

= distances as the crow flies

BY CAR

  • Taking the A22 highway, take the exit for Mantua
  • Driving on the A4 highway, take the exit for Desenzano del Garda
  • Taking the A1 highway, take the exit for Parma
  • Taking the A21 highway, take the exit for Cremona

ON THE TRAIN

  • Mantua station
  • Parma station
  • Bozzolo station
  • Casalmaggiore station

BY PLANE

  • Verona Catullo Airport
  • Orio al Serio airport
  • Bologna airport
  • Parma airport
  • Milan Linate Airport
  • Milan Malpensa airport

Sleep, eat, buy...

La Pesa e Corte Uccellanda
The Corte Uccellanda is a farmhouse dating back to 1908.
Via Castello, 1, Monzambano (Mantova)
43.43 Kilometers from Sabbioneta
= distances as the crow flies
Trattoria La Colomba
Small family-run tavern where you can enjoy the typical dishes of the Mantuan tradition as the bi...
Via Castello 15, Monzambano (Mantova)
43.42 Kilometers from Sabbioneta
= distances as the crow flies

Events

monday
20
january, 2025

San Sebastiano

Our news about Sabbioneta

Italy has always given us exceptional traditional dishes from North to South and the variety of typical dishes extends not only geographically but also throughout all seasons of the year. In fact, there are dishes that were and still are enjoyed during a certain period of the year. These include autumn dishes. Let's see which to taste and where. Tagliolini with black truffle from NorciaThis dish has its origins in Umbria and precisely in the ...
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The pumpkin embraces voluptuous amaretti, fruit mostarda and Parmigiano Reggiano. To enclose them, a thin casket of fresh pasta. They are the famous tortelli di Sabbioneta, typical of the city of Mantua and of all its territory, scattered with villages set in the green countryside of Lombardy. Among these there is Sabbioneta and in this recipe we propose the pumpkin tortelli that are prepared in this village founded in the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna. A pasta dish that colors the tables in fall and whose particula...
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Born from the passion of the singer-songwriter Jenni Gandolfi, the’idea of bringing the songs of the great Fabrizio De André in Italian theaters, through a group of boys called “La compagnia di Jenni Gandolfi”, students of the same. The same show had been a considerable success in 2015 at the Teatro Bibiena in Mantova. .
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