Brescia is a place that delights every traveler with its history and art. This city offers a variety of monuments and attractions. From ancient Roman ruins to magnificent Renaissance buildings. Brescia is also home to the famous Rotunda – a church with a unique circular plan, which is one of the oldest examples of Christian architecture in Europe. Take a trip to Brescia and see why it is worth visiting this charming Italian city.
Brescia is the second largest city in the Lombardy region of Italy. It is located in northern Italy and has many UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
TOP TOURIST ATTRACTIONS:
1. Brescia Castle
Brescia Castle, also known as “Falcone d’Italia”, stands on Cidneo Hill, at the northeast destenation of the town.Built between the 13th and the 16th century, it is among the largest castles in Italy. Besides commanding a fine view of the city and a large part of the surrounding area, and being a local favorite recreational area, the castle hosts the Arms Museum, with a fine collection of weapons from the Middle Ages onwards, the Risorgimento Museum, dedicated to the Italian independence wars of the 19th century, an exhibition of model railroads and an astronomical observatory.
2. Santa Giulia Museum
A visit to the Museum of Santa Giulia unwinds along two paths.
The first is devoted to the history of the monastery, whose monumental structures attest to the different eras that have marked the history of the city: the church of San Salvatore from the Lombard age, the Romanesque oratory of Santa Maria in Solario, the nuns’ choir, the church of Santa Giulia, the Renaissance cloisters, the jewelled cross of Desiderio and the ivory Lipsaoteca, or Brescia Casket.
The second path, which integrates with the previous one, features treasured materials and works of art from the city and territory, arranged chronologically in sections spanning from prehistoric times to the 19th century.
3. Piazza della Loggia
The favorable position in the city center and the construction of the Loggia, seat of the municipal administration, still make Piazza della Loggia a focal point for citizens and tourists. The square has maintained its incredible charm intact over the years, enhanced today by suggestive lighting, bars, restaurants and numerous truly interesting historical-artistic elements. Palazzo della Loggia, like the square that hosts it, presents itself in its grandeur and at the same time with a simple and clean style. The facade, made of Botticino marble, features columns and pilasters with rich sculptural decorations.
4. Capitolium o Tempio Capitolino
The Capitolium, or Capitoline Temple (Tempio Capitolino), is a Roman temple located in Brescia, in the Piazza del Foro, along the Via dei Musei. The Capitolium is the nucleus of the ancient Roman city of Brixia and, together with the theatre and the ruins of the forum, is the most important Roman archaeological complex in northern Italy. This ancient temple complex was built in the early 1st century AD by the Emperor Vespasian as a symbol of Roman power and in honour of the Capitoline Trinity: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
5. Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo
The Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo is a public art museum in Brescia. Founded in 1851, the museum mainly exhibits paintings by local artists from the 13th to the 18th century. The museum’s current collection includes over 800 works of painting and sculpture, presented in 21 galleries.
6. Duomo Vecchio
The Duomo Vecchio, the Old Catholic Cathedral of Brescia stands right next to the Duomo Nuovo or New Cathedral.It’s also called “La Rotunda” thanks to its unusual round layout. In fact, it’s one of the most important examples of a Romanesque round church here in Italy. The Duomo Vecchio was built in the 11th.
7. Castello Scaligero di Sirmione
Around the 13th century, Sirmione Castle became part of the possessions of the Della Scala family from Verona, who wanted to build a fortress, important for its strategic position in defending the Scala estates towards Mantua and Milan. The first part of the castle was built on an ancient Roman fortification. Completed in 1278, it included the keep, the highest tower from which the fortress dominates the lake, the main courtyard, three towers and two entrances with a drawbridge. The village fence, the battlemented gate overlooking Piazza Flaminia and the famous dock, a place of refuge for the Scaliger fleet, were not added until a century later. After falling under Venetian rule in 1405, Sirmione slowly began to decline due to the increased strategic importance assumed by nearby Peschiera.
8. Palazzo Martinengo Cesaresco Novarino
Palazzo Martinengo Cesaresco overlooks Via Musei and Piazza del Foro in the historic center of Brescia, a few meters from the Capitolium. The current palace was built in the mid-17th century on the remains of a previous 15th-century building commissioned by Count Cesare IV Martinengo Cesaresco. Upon the death of the count, the building became the property of his children – Carlo I, Scilla and Enrico – who divided it into three parts, thus determining a segmentation of the property, which was purchased at the beginning of the 20th century by the Province of Brescia.
9. Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta Brescia
The Duomo Nuovo or New Cathedral is the largest Roman Catholic church in Brescia, Italy. Construction was begun in 1604 at the site where the paleo-Christian 5th-6th century basilica of San Pietro de Dom was located.The present dome was rebuilt after destruction during the Second World War. The facade contains statues of the Virgin of the Assumption and Saints Peter, Paul, James, and John.Among the interior works of art are a scenes from the life of the Virgin by Girolamo Romanino (Marriage, Visitation, and Birth) and a Sacrifice of Isaac by Moretto da Brescia.
10. Vittoriale degli Italiani
Vittoriale degli italiani is a hillside estate in Gardone Riviera overlooking Lake Garda in the province of Brescia. It was here that the Italian poet and novelist Gabriele D’Annunzio lived from his defenestration in 1922 until his death in 1938.
11. Biblioteca Queriniana
Located on the central Via Mazzini, the Queriniana Library of Brescia was established in 1747 by Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini, who also built the building that houses it. Its notable collection includes the ancient collection composed of 150,000 volumes of which 1158 incunabula and 8386 sixteenth-century books, as well as 10,000 manuscripts, including illuminated codices and documents.
12. Monumental Cemetery
The Monumental Cemetery of Brescia is one of the first and oldest monumental cemeteries in Italy. It was the first construction project of the neoclassical architect Rodolfo Vantini, who began its construction in 1813 and devoted his entire life to its creation.
