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Volta Mantovana

THE TERRITORY

A stretch of the River Mincio that passes through Volta Mantovana

A stretch of the River Mincio that passes through Volta Mantovana
Volta Mantovana rises on the Morainic Hills between the Po Valley and the southern shores of Lake Garda, an area with a mild climate and luxuriant nature. Its territory, with formally recognized environmental and landscape value, is included within the boundaries of the Mincio Nature Park.
The uniqueness and authenticity of local food and wine products make visiting even more rewarding.

HISTORY

Portrait of the Grand Countess Matilda di Canossa

Portrait of the Grand Countess Matilda di Canossa

Located on the first of Lake Garda’s Morainic Hills, overlooking the Po Valley, Volta Mantovana has very ancient origins. The first settlements can be traced back to Polada and Middle Bronze ages, when small communities formed on the Morainic Hills, along the River Mincio and on the Mincio Island. The territory, intensely inhabited by Celtic populations, did not escape penetration by the Etruscans and colonization by the Romans, as documented in many records and archaeological finds from those eras, now mainly preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Cavriana.
During these centuries, and after the invasions of Germanic populations, the settlements gradually developed and acquired a certain consistency and importance, so much so that, to protect its inhabitants and their economic activities, various fortifications were built, most probably in the ninth or tenth centuries.
From the early Middle Ages, and certainly before the year 1000 AD, court and castle developed to the extent that by the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century they formed part of the defensive economic system of the powerful Canossa family, which extended its dominion from Tuscany to the Mantuan Morainic Hills.
Through donations by Beatrice and Matilde di Canossa (1053-1073) the court, the castle and the lands of Volta, as well as the town of Cereta, passed under the long-spanning control of the Bishop and the Canons of the Cathedral of Mantua.
In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, Volta consisted of a town fortified around a keep by a defensive wall, the castle belonging first to the Canossa family and then to the bishopric, the parish church, and several groups of houses built inside and around the walls, and along the access routes to the castle.
Scattered across the surrounding countryside were tiny clusters of houses and farms inhabited by settlers intent on tilling and cultivating the land. In this period, the town of Cereta began to be organized as a distinct community, with its own church and magistracies. Indeed, the two towns were formed into two municipalities, or rather ‘Communitates’, governed by different consuls and mayors.
Both, however, were politically subjects of the Municipality of Mantua, which, on the death of the Grand Countess in 1115, assumed power and political control of the Mantuan territory that had suffered destruction and devastation as a result of internal struggles between the various noble Mantuan families. Volta, in any case, remained under the dominion of the Bonacolsi and then the Gonzagas, as an integral part of the Mantuan state.
The only exception was when it was handed over, for a very short time, to the Venetian dominion, together with other castle towns, as a pledge for a loan granted to the Gonzagas. These events led to the reorganization of the fortified town, its walls, towers and the defence of the territory, with the assignment of vicariate to control and administer the whole area on behalf of the Lords of Mantua. Taking on this role in the early 1500s was a man called Giovanni Battista, of the noble Guerrieri family, who for many centuries had maintained a strong bond with Volta.

The Night Battle of Volta fought between the 26th and 27th of July 1848, during the Wars of Independence

The Night Battle of Volta fought between the 26th and 27th of July 1848, during the Wars of Independence

In the mid-1400s, Ludovico II Gonzaga and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg had their own palace built inside the fortified centre, where they, their children and their grandchildren took respite from the labours of government, the unhealthy seasonal climate and, far worse, the diseases that often raged in the City of Mantua.
In 1600, two convents were built, that of the Franciscans on the hill of Monte da Sera, and that of the Ursulines, then Dominicans, within the fortified town, which were both suppressed with the arrival in Italy of Napoleonic troops and the affirmation of the Cisalpine Republic.
Passing under Austrian rule, Volta was affected by the Wars of Independence, with a battle taking place there between the Austrian troops and the soldiers of Charles Albert on the 26th and 27th of July 1848. On the 11th of April 1848, at Palazzo Gonzaga Guerrieri, the King of Sardinia issued a decree assigning the new tricolour flag to his warships and those of the merchant navy.

Re Vittorio Emanuele, la regina Elena e la sorella Xenia a Volta Mantovana - 1909

The Night Battle of Volta fought between the 26th and 27th of July 1848, during the Wars of Independence

In the mid-1400s, Ludovico II Gonzaga and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg had their own palace built inside the fortified centre, where they, their children and their grandchildren took respite from the labours of government, the unhealthy seasonal climate and, far worse, the diseases that often raged in the City of Mantua.
In 1600, two convents were built, that of the Franciscans on the hill of Monte da Sera, and that of the Ursulines, then Dominicans, within the fortified town, which were both suppressed with the arrival in Italy of Napoleonic troops and the affirmation of the Cisalpine Republic.

Passing under Austrian rule, Volta was affected by the Wars of Independence, with a battle taking place there between the Austrian troops and the soldiers of Charles Albert on the 26th and 27th of July 1848. On the 11th of April 1848, at Palazzo Gonzaga Guerrieri, the King of Sardinia issued a decree assigning the new tricolour flag to his warships and those of the merchant navy.

Annexes

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