Description
The Castle of San Giorgio is the Gonzaga fortress where the Lago di Mezzo meets the Lago Inferiore, in Mantua: a massive square with four corner towers, surrounded by a moat. It is part of the Palazzo Ducale complex and holds one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance, Andrea Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi.
The Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber), or Camera Picta, is a cube-shaped room in the north-east tower, painted by Mantegna between 1465 and 1474. On the walls, painted pillars open the room onto landscapes and curtains stirred by the wind, as if it were an open-air loggia.
Two scenes portray the Gonzaga family. In the Court, Marquis Ludovico sits holding a letter beside his wife, Barbara of Brandenburg, among children and courtiers; under the throne crouches his favourite dog, Rubino, and there is also the court dwarf, looking straight out at the viewer.
At the centre of the vault opens the oculus, the most astonishing part: a painted roundel open to the blue sky, over whose parapet lean a lady of the court with her maid, a few servant girls, a peacock and a dozen precariously balanced putti, some with their heads stuck through the rings of the balustrade.
The rest of the castle is visited along the Palazzo Ducale route. You reach it by the Scalone di Enea (Aeneas Staircase), designed by Giovan Battista Bertani in 1549, which comes out in the courtyard with Luca Fancelli's loggia, designed by Mantegna.
The castle was built between 1395 and 1406 by Bartolino da Novara for Francesco I Gonzaga, to defend the city, with three gates and their drawbridges. From 1459 Fancelli turned it into a residence, and its military role was abandoned for good.
Isabella d'Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, lived here for a long time and brought artists and writers to court, such as Mantegna, Perugino, Leonardo, Ariosto and Castiglione. Her bridal chamber, the Sala delle Sigle, and the small Saletta della Grotta were in the castle.
The castle also had a darker history as a prison. In 1810 the Tyrolean patriot Andreas Hofer was held here before his execution, and under the Austrians it became a maximum-security prison for opponents, including the Martyrs of Belfiore.
But not everyone stayed inside: on the night of 29 to 30 March 1856 the patriot Felice Orsini managed a daring escape.
Don't miss
• Camera degli Sposi.
• The oculus on the vault.
• Scalone di Enea.
• The moat and the towers.
Did you know?
• A human profile hides in a cloud near the oculus, perhaps a self-portrait of Mantegna, and another of his faces hides as a mask among the painted reliefs on one wall.
• The castle stands on the rubble of a church, Santa Maria di Capo di Bove.
The Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber), or Camera Picta, is a cube-shaped room in the north-east tower, painted by Mantegna between 1465 and 1474. On the walls, painted pillars open the room onto landscapes and curtains stirred by the wind, as if it were an open-air loggia.
Two scenes portray the Gonzaga family. In the Court, Marquis Ludovico sits holding a letter beside his wife, Barbara of Brandenburg, among children and courtiers; under the throne crouches his favourite dog, Rubino, and there is also the court dwarf, looking straight out at the viewer.
At the centre of the vault opens the oculus, the most astonishing part: a painted roundel open to the blue sky, over whose parapet lean a lady of the court with her maid, a few servant girls, a peacock and a dozen precariously balanced putti, some with their heads stuck through the rings of the balustrade.
The rest of the castle is visited along the Palazzo Ducale route. You reach it by the Scalone di Enea (Aeneas Staircase), designed by Giovan Battista Bertani in 1549, which comes out in the courtyard with Luca Fancelli's loggia, designed by Mantegna.
The castle was built between 1395 and 1406 by Bartolino da Novara for Francesco I Gonzaga, to defend the city, with three gates and their drawbridges. From 1459 Fancelli turned it into a residence, and its military role was abandoned for good.
Isabella d'Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, lived here for a long time and brought artists and writers to court, such as Mantegna, Perugino, Leonardo, Ariosto and Castiglione. Her bridal chamber, the Sala delle Sigle, and the small Saletta della Grotta were in the castle.
The castle also had a darker history as a prison. In 1810 the Tyrolean patriot Andreas Hofer was held here before his execution, and under the Austrians it became a maximum-security prison for opponents, including the Martyrs of Belfiore.
But not everyone stayed inside: on the night of 29 to 30 March 1856 the patriot Felice Orsini managed a daring escape.
Don't miss
• Camera degli Sposi.
• The oculus on the vault.
• Scalone di Enea.
• The moat and the towers.
Did you know?
• A human profile hides in a cloud near the oculus, perhaps a self-portrait of Mantegna, and another of his faces hides as a mask among the painted reliefs on one wall.
• The castle stands on the rubble of a church, Santa Maria di Capo di Bove.