History

Valeggio sul Mincio is a truly fascinating place - one of history, traditions, tastes, memories, art and culture. The river, the countryside and the buildings are the distinctive marks of a town that lies where the Garda moraine gives way to the plain. It dates back to the bronze age, where Venetian or Rhaetic populations founded a village of pile-dwellings in the middle of the river, just north of Borghetto. Over the years it became a crossroads of people and events that wrote important pages of Italian history. Starting when an episode which, after the beginning of the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, Valeggio witnessed a historic meeting in Salionze.  At this meeting Pope Leo the Great persuaded the ferocious barbarian king Attila to abandon his bellicose intentions to conquer Rome and the peninsula. Then came the turn of the Scaligers, Viscontis and Gonzagas, who contended this extraordinary place that was once a route of communication, a place of transit and a means of defence. The Scaliger-Visconti castle that stands on the hill dominating the Mincio valley, the majestic Visconti bridge, the villas and palaces erected during the long, active and fertile period of Venetian domination bear witness today to the role that Valeggio has played in history. This wonderful and fascinating village has hosted sovereigns and emperors, generals and armies, witnessed unbelievably bloody battles and participated proudly in the glorious pages of Italy’s national history.