The Castello di San Giorgio is part of the

Ducal palace of Mantua The Palazzo Ducale di Mantova ("Ducal Palace") is a group of buildings in Mantua, Lombardy, northern Italy, built between the 14th and the 17th century mainly by the noble family of House of Gonzaga, Gonzaga as their royal residence in the capita ...

. It is a moated rectangular castle, each of which's four corners has a large tower and the moat is crossed by three drawbridges.

History

It was built between 1395 and 1406 on the ruins of the church of Santa Maria di Capo di Bove for

Francesco I Gonzaga Portrait of Francesco I Gonzaga Francesco I Gonzaga (1366 – 7 March 1407) was ruler of Mantua from 1382 to 1407. He was also a condottiero. Succeeding his father Ludovico II Gonzaga in 1382, he led a policy of balance between the nearby ...

, to designs by

Bartolino da Novara Bartolino (Bertolino) Ploti da Novara (died 1406–1410) was an Italian military architect and engineer. He was in the service of the Este that in the city of Ferrara in 1376 presented him with a palace in which he lived also his descendant Dome ...

Ludovico III Gonzaga Ludovico III Gonzaga of Mantua, also spelled Lodovico (also Ludovico II; 5 June 1412 – 12 June 1478) was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478. Biography Ludovico was the son of Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga and ...

gave over his rooms in the "Corte Vecchi" to

pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...

for the Council of Mantua in 1459 - that year, he commissioned

Luca Fancelli Luca Fancelli (c. 1430 – c. 1502) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Biography Fancelli was born in Settignano, a fraction of Florence. Much of his life and work is an enigma; what is known for sure is that he trained as a stonecutte ...

to rebuild the castle as a palazzo rather than as a defensible castle. He also commissioned the frescoes of the castle's

Camera degli Sposi The Camera degli Sposi ("bridal chamber"), sometimes known as the Camera picta ("painted chamber"), is a room frescoed with illusionistic paintings by Andrea Mantegna in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy.. During the fifteenth century when the Came ...

. In 1490 the castle became the site of the

studiolo of Isabella d'Este The Studiolo of Isabella d'Este was a special private study, first in castello di San Giorgio, later the Studiolo was moved to the Corte Vecchi apartments in the Ducal Palace in Mantua, designed by, and with a collection of art specially commissione ...

, remaining there until she moved it to the "Corte Vecchi" in 1519-1522. In 1496 the condottiero Paolo Vitelli was captured by Francesco II and imprisoned in the castle. It remained the main Gonzaga residence for around a century until Guglielmo Gonzaga moved his apartments to the rebuilt "Corte Vecchi". Anker_San_Giorgio_in_Mantua_1891

In 1810 the

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

ean fighter

Andreas Hofer Andreas Hofer (22 November 1767 – 20 February 1810) was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover, who in 1809 became the leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the Napoleonic and Bavarian invasion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was subs ...

was imprisoned in the castle before his execution by the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

. Mantua became part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

in 1814 and from 1815 it was a maximum security prison for the Empire's political opponents, such as the

Belfiore martyrs The Belfiore martyrs were a group of pro-independence fighters condemned to death by hanging between 1852 and 1853 during the Italian Risorgimento. They included Tito Speri and the priest Enrico Tazzoli and are named after the site where the se ...

from 1852 onwards. Others pro-

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

figures imprisoned there included Ciro Menotti and Teresa Arrivabene. The building's structure was damaged by the

2012 Emilia earthquake In May 2012, two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. The events are known in Italy as the 2012 Emilia earthquakes, because they mainly affected the Emilia region. The first earthquake, registering ...

Rooms

*''Sala dei Soli'', ground floor, contains 15th century frescoes, redesigned by

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...

1531 Year 1531 ( MDXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 26 – Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake, in which thousands die. * Fe ...

and then by Giovan Battista Bertani *''Sala degli Stemmi'', accessed by a spiral staircase *''Salone degli Affreschi'', parallel to the ''Sala degli Stemmi'' *''Sala delle Sigle'', bridal suite of

Isabella d'Este Isabella d'Este (19 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) was Marchioness of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whos ...

*''Saletta della Grotta'', part of Isabella's apartments *''Sala delle Armi'', with twelve heraldic devices by Giulio Romano *''Chapel'', built in 1563 by Bertani Giovanni Paccagnini, Il Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, Milano, 2002, page 60 *''Sala di Mezzo'' *''Sala del Fregio'' *''Sala delle Cappe'', with barrel vaulted ceiling *''Sala dello Zodiaco'', with the remains of paintings by Giulio Romano, the room used to house Pietro Frattini, one of the Belfiore martyrs, and

Ciro Menotti Ciro Menotti (22 January 1798 – 23 May 1831) was an Italian patriot. Biography Menotti was born in Migliarina, near Carpi, then part of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. A member of the Carboneria since 1817, he was a fervent democratic and p ...

*''

''. *''Scalone di Enea'', designed by Bertani in 1549, just after his appointment as "Prefect of the Ducal Buildings" by cardinal

Ercole Gonzaga Ercole Gonzaga (23 November 1505 – 2 March 1563) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinal. Biography Born in Mantua, he was the son of the Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este, and nephe ...

, directly connects the castle's courtyard and loggiato with the Salone di Manto in the Ducal Palace *''Courtyard and loggiato'', designed by Fancelli in 1472 to designs by

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

Giovanni Paccagnini, Il Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, Milano, 2002, page 52

References

Bibliography

* Maria Rosa Palvarini, Carlo Perogalli, ''Castelli dei Gonzaga'', Milano, 1983. * Alberto Garlandini, ''I castelli della Lombardia'', Milano, 1991. * Touring Club Italiano (ed.), ''Lombardia. Guide d'Italia'', Milano, 1970. {{coord, 45.1609, 10.8000, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

category:Buildings and structures in Mantua category:Gonzaga residences