Palazzo Castiglioni | Garden

Entirely built in brick and topped with Ghibelline battlements, the façade of Palazzo Castiglioni is, together with the Palazzo Ducale, the Cathedral, and the Bishop’s Palace, one of the landmarks of Piazza Sordello. The fourteenth-century building was originally the residence of the Bonacolsi, the first lords of the city. It faces the Palazzo Ducale, the centre of Mantua’s artistic and political life, which under the Gonzaga family became one of the most important courts of the European Renaissance.

Palazzo Castiglioni is still today the residence of the descendants of Baldassarre Castiglione, the Renaissance writer and diplomat, and it is also the headquarters of the Mantua Chamber Orchestra.