Museo Civico Archeologico "Giovanni Rambotti"

Desenzano's Giovanni Rambotti Civic Archaeological Museum explores the prehistory of Lake Garda, with a particular focus on the Lavagnone pile-dwelling settlement. A remarkably preserved Bronze Age wooden plough is central to its collection.

Why it matters

The museum connects objects of everyday work with the changing environments of early farming communities. The Lavagnone basin, between Desenzano and Lonato, preserves evidence of different ways of building and living beside a small lake.

What to notice

The Lavagnone plough retains the distinctive form of an early agricultural implement, including its fitted handle. Settlement evidence includes houses raised on wooden supports and others built on reclaimed or dry ground. Materials from other Garda pile dwellings broaden the local picture, while a further section follows the territory from Roman times through the Renaissance and Venetian rule.

Context and history

The museum opened in 1990 and takes its name from Giovanni Rambotti, Desenzano's first mayor in 1860 and an early investigator of its prehistoric finds. Renato Perini's excavations in the 1970s recovered the plough; the University of Milan began work at Lavagnone in 1989. The site's inclusion in the Alpine pile-dwelling World Heritage property in 2011 encouraged the expansion of the museum's archaeological display.