Castello Scaligero di Lazise

Lazise’s fourteenth-century Scaliger Castle formed part of a defensive ensemble with the town walls, rocca, military harbour and arsenal. Built between 1375 and 1381, it records the successive struggles for control of the eastern shore of Lake Garda among the Scaliger lords, the Visconti and Venice.

Why it matters

The castle stands within Lazise’s walled town, whose freedom charter was granted by Otto II in 983. Its fortifications preserve traces of changing political control, from the Scaliger period through the Visconti and Venetian conflicts. The related harbour and arsenal made the castle part of a broader military complex.

What to notice

The walls have three gates and twelve shielded towers. Porta San Zeno’s tower was reportedly lowered after a Visconti and Gonzaga victory over Venetian forces around 1400. Porta Lion bears the winged lion of Saint Mark. Porta Nuova, also called Porta Cansignorio, retains artillery impacts; within its passage are a mosaic of San Martino and a 1955 bas-relief of the Madonna rising from stormy lake waters. The rocca had five towers around a keep that was once isolated by a drawbridge. The military harbour was about sixty metres long, and the Torre del Cadenon could close the merchant harbour during war or quarantine.

Context and history

Construction began under Cansignorio della Scala and was completed under his brothers Antonio and Bartolomeo II. The towers were raised before the connecting curtain walls. The complex also included the military port, arsenal and Torre del Cadenon. As gunpowder changed siege warfare, the fortress lost its military role. The community of Lazise acquired it; in 1841 it passed to the Fontana family and later to Count Gian Battista Buri, who repaired the keep and developed the former port as a nineteenth-century park. The castle is now privately owned by the Conti Bernini.