I Luoghi della 1000 Miglia

Peschiera del Garda

Peschiera, the fortress town, a mixture of lake and river

Peschiera del Garda, originally known as “Arilica”, is a jewel of architecture, art and culture, awarded the title of Flowering Municipality 2007, Virtuous City 2012 and Jewel of Italy Municipality. Its walls became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017 and are worthy of the attention of visitors both for the fortress’s peculiar shape and for its spectacular location: it is in fact a pentagonal fortification with a bastion on each vertex, located in the middle of the waters of the Mincio River. Situated south of Lake Garda, Peschiera was built by modifying the natural course of the river that surrounds it: to allow the city to be defended, three branches were built out of the lake that then come together to the south of the town, with the characteristic historic centre spread over small islands connected by bridges. One of these is the Ponte dei Voltoni, a structure with beautiful terracotta arches, overlooking the Canale di Mezzo, where the boats of the fishermen of Peschiera del Garda stop, neatly arranged, overlooking the islet below, beyond which the waters of the Benaco flow into the river.