World Heritage

7 July 2008. UNESCO includes Sabbioneta among the World Heritage Sites due to its exceptional nature of utopian ideal city.

At the time of knights

Located between the rivers Po and Oglio, along the ancient Vitelliana Way, Sabbioneta occupies a strategic position. In a document dating back to the year 829, the settlement is already called “castrum”, i.e. a fortified village. After the year 1000, Sabbioneta is debated by different families: in 1314, the town is occupied by the Bonacolsi from Mantua and, a few years later, by the Gonzaga for the first time. After several ups and downs, the Gonzaga finally recaptured it in 1426, thanks to Gian Francesco, commander of La Serenissima, i.e. the Republic of Venice. Finally, in 1478 the town passes to a cadet branch of the family. And it is in 1540 that the creator of our Sabbioneta appears on the stage of history: Vespasiano Gonzaga.

The treasure box

Therefore, between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, a powerful Mantuan family, with its cadet branches (including the famous Gonzaga-Nevers), reaches the apex of fame. Thanks to men of letters, artists, poets and talented people, the Court feeds on the Italian Renaissance magnificence. In the sixteenth century, the fifteenth century town planning, with its classically orchestrated places, gives up its seat to a further need for perfection. Pythagoras and Plato become fashionable again, the idea of beauty crowns the archetype or utopia of an ideal, though military, city. This is the dream of Vespasiano Gonzaga. Thus, the mathematics of the golden section is accompanied by a new interest in geometrical shapes and planimetry correspondences, with urban structures designed according to measure and proportion. The walls of Sabbioneta become a fortified box preserving a treasure.

Beautiful

Like a work of art. Vespasiano Gonzaga fully rebuilds Sabbioneta between 1554 and 1591, the year of his death. In the meantime (1577), Sabbioneta becomes a small dukedom among the dukedoms of his Mantuan cousins and the allied family of the Farnese from Parma. After the intense and admirable rebuilding of the town carried out by Vespasiano, the political situation would seem excellent for his heirs. However, disputes end up by prevailing. And for several decades Sabbioneta will not have any leader. Afterwards, there will be the Austrian and Napoleonic dominion…and the town will be deprived of important buildings, such as the fortress, the armoury and the demilunes outside the walls perimeter. However, all changes, including the move of the antiquarian collection to the Accademia di Mantova in 1772, have not affected the extraordinary atmosphere that the town offers to modern tourists. Sabbioneta is beautiful and hosts several wonderful Renaissance buildings such as the Palazzo Ducale, the Theatre (designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and the first modern building specifically built for this purpose), the Galleria degli Antichi, the Palazzo Giardino, the Chiesa dell'Assunta, the Chiesa dell'Incoronata, the Chiesa del Carmine, the Synagogue and the historic Jewish Quarter, with its annexed printing factories established by Tobias Foa in 1567.