Squares, noble palaces, ancient fortresses, and suggestive churches characterize this land to be explored. From the first pre-Roman settlements to the suggestive fortresses symbolizing the Gonzaga’s power and the unforgettable “Peppone e Don Camillo” settings – created by Giovannino Guareschi – each place hides an age-old history. Let’s discover it together!
On the south side, Piazza Martiri (“Martiri” square) is enclosed by the imposing 18th-century Palazzo Sartoretti. Originally built in the 16th century, it was modified in 1765 by the homonymous rich family who lived there. In 1979, it was donated to the Municipality by the last descendant of the family.
The “Museo della Civiltà Contadina” is part of a larger project, promoted by the Municipal Administration. Thanks to the enthusiasm and expertise of some volunteers (Association “Brugneto C’è”) and to the generosity of many donors, the Museum has rapidly begun to take shape - in an area of the “Braccianti di Brugneto” Civic Centre. The museum consists of equipment and a variety of tools used by farmers in the previous centuries.
This territory is characterized by canals, ditches, basins and cultivated fields - an ideal place for group walks or solo bike rides.
The historical centre of Reggiolo is placed near the medieval Fortress. The Fortress was constructed around the high tower dating back to 1242, which later became the central keep of the fortified complex known as “Castrum Novum” - to distinguish it from the older one, located beyond the so-called “Tagliata”. The castle has a quadrangular plan, with a ca. 40-meter wall per side, four angular towers - of which two more protruding, placed on the south side.
The north wing of the main floor of the Doge's Palace houses the Maldotti Quadreria, a selection of about fifty paintings belonging to the collection of the historic Maldotti Library. The works are exhibited in a process focused on the formation of the collection over time that highlights the link between the collection and the territory and collecting in the Guastallese area. Frames the beautiful Palazzo Ducale, the most representative monument of the city.
The Museum-Laboratory was created in 2003 within the environments of the Primary School of the Comprehensive Institute "F. Gonzaga "with the purpose of experiencing our history. The museum consists of two rooms in which two classrooms have been reproduced: one in the first half of the 1900s and the other after the second post-war period. Original furnishings and teaching materials are preserved, as well as school documents from 1843-1970.
In the lowlands, next to the Po river, there is a theater, without a stage, in which actors and the public can dialogue in a new way.
Down the street “contrada dei Servi” (now called “Vittorio Veneto”), in the south-west corner of the square, stands the “Chiesa dei Servi”, a religious building constructed with the financial support of notary Camillo Farnetti, from Novellara, and the legacy of 100 “scudi d’oro” (a type of coin used in the Italian peninsula) given by Count Alessandro Gonzaga.
Following a legacy by the Duchess Eleonora d'Este, in the second half of the 15th century, the Benedictine nuns became owners of the Monastery, until the advent of the Cisalpine Republic. Then, in 1758, the religious order was suppressed. As early as 1553, the Monastery was home to a school for convent girls. Later, in 1798, the Monastery was suppressed. In 1873, the Municipality of Brescello became owner of the building and transformed it into a military barrack. At the beginning of the 20th century, the building wing overlooking “Via Primo Maggio” was used as an elementary school, whereas most of the building was residential or the seat of small workshops. In 1933, the south and west wings were demolished, while the main body of the building housed the “Casa del Fascio”, and served as a location for meetings and orchestra rehearsals.
Inaugurated in 2007, the Archeological Museum collects a series of artifacts found in Brescello between the 18th and the 19th century.
The building is based on a 15th-century Oratory - rebuilt in 1578 and again in 1760. It is located in “Via Matteotti” - the main street of the town - and its distinctive feature is the statue representing the “Madonnina nella roccia”. Actually, the people living in Reggiolo also refer to it as the church of the “Madonnina di Lourdes”. It has a high slender facade enclosed by Doric pilasters, completed by a curvilinear pediment. The belfry has single-light windows and a cuspidate roof. The interior is characterized by an unusual quadrangular hall, an elliptic dome supported by columns and semi-columns and a “cupolino” (smaller dome).
The painter Ruggero Giorgi was born in 1887, into a farming family. After the artistic apprenticeship at the “Cignaroli” Academy in Verona (1910), during 1912, he lived in Munich for five months - where he attended Heinrich Knirr’s courses and approached German expressionism. Later, he spent a brief period in Paris and came into contact with some avant-garde artistic movements: Cubism, Abstractism and Fauvism.
The original structure of the church of Poviglio, probably dating back to the eleventh century, had to be about as the current church but incorporated in the castle. It was accessible only by the lord of the castle through a door on the side.
The museum, is located on the noble floor of the fortress of Novellara, and develops along thirteen exhibition halls, five of which are dedicated to Lelio Orsi, for forty years artist of the Gonzaga. Here his frescoes can be admired.
It was founded in 1967, after the first edition of the Prize conceived by Cesare Zavattini - a famous writer, screenwriter and journalist from Luzzara - and located in the former Augustinian Convent (Church of the SS. Annunziata, in “località Villa Superiore”).
It was built by Giulio Borromeo in 1600 and consecrated in 1607. Damaged several times, it was restored in the 18th century to a design by Antonio Filippi.
The 17th-century “Santuario della Beata Vergine della Porta” is a religious building of great interest due to the Baroque architecture of its interior, constructed by the will of Duke Ferrante III.
The "Piccolo Museo della Moto" of Emilio Bariaschi collects - in four pavilions - 160 pieces and 34 different brands related to the Italian and European motorcycle industry.
The collection is hosted in the rooms of Palazzo Bentivoglio and consists of 50 works of considerable artistic value that the famous tailor Umberto Tirelli has donated to the City of Gualtieri.
Among these stand out Balthus drawings, paintings by Fabrizio Clerici, Renato Guttuso, Mino Maccari, Giorgio de Chirico, Giacomo Manzù. Also on show are two costumes designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and Piero Tosi for the Enrico IV of Pirandello and for the Ludwig by Luchino Visconti.
In the village of Santa Vittoria - in Gualtieri - stands a large building constructed between 1770 and 1775 by the family of the noble Greppi from Milano - who had received a large agricultural estate in the area from the Estensi Counts. The palace is placed in the very centre of the village: its location and volume have affected the entire configuration of Santa Vittoria, preventing the construction of a square
The Church, formerly built in medieval times and then rebuilt between 1829 and 1837, hosts the famous "talking Christ" of the Don Camillo and Peppone films, created by the sculptor Bruno Avesani, and also contains valuable works by the local painter, Carlo Zatti, and sculptor Carlo Pisi.
Opened on June 2009, the museum - together with the overall museum system - was conceived as a place to gather testimonies related to the past activities of the country.
It was back in 1716 when, after several requests, the Villa Arzenago community got permission from reigning Duke of Modena Rinaldo III, to build a church dedicated to the “Santa Croce” (Holy Cross).
The Hall hosts some Art Nouveau frescoes by M. Nizzoli.
The mid-19th century Basilica stands on the ruins of previous churches, which were also named after the Saint. It was designed by architect L. Panizzi Moriglio, built between 1871 and 1883, and consecrated in the same year.
Palazzo Bentivoglio was built on the structure of an ancient castle. The complex consisted of a large quadrangular structure surrounded by deep moats at the four corners and included towers. The entire complex enclosed a large courtyard.
The Golena is a site of important naturalistic value consisting of a stretch of about 10 km of the right floodplain of the Po River, close to the border with Lombardy.
Thanks to the efforts and enthusiasm of a group of volunteers in the country, led by Erminio Bertoli, on April 16th, 1989, the Peppone and Don Camillo Museum was inaugurated. An interesting space where you can immerse yourself in the past, letting yourself be guided by movie posters, deepen news, learn anecdotes and admire unique images and original memorabilia, primarily the sidecar bike. In addition, at the museum, there is an assorted bookshop.
The House Museum Al Belvedere “Pietro Ghizzardi” has its seat in the house where the artist spent the last years of his life. The atmosphere in which the painter and writer spent his days and created – from the mid 70s until his death in 1986 – has been preserved intact in this place.
