Castelcovati

Castelcovati sits in the western Bassa Bresciana, on flat farmland without a single natural watercourse: here the water runs in canals, the largest being the Castellana, out of Urago d'Oglio. Before drainage it was all marsh and bog. In May 1220 Obertino Gambara, podestà of Brescia, lifted every toll from the local castle, which was no real castle but a ricetto sheltering the settlers of the borgo: those exemptions gave the place the name Villafranca, and only later that of Castrum Coatorum.

The bell tower over the centre is, for some historians, that castle's own tower, at the crossing of the roads to Chiari and Urago d'Oglio; by Da Lezze's land survey only "a bit of a castle, but destroyed" was left of it, and that castle, eagle perched on its two roofed towers, is still the town's coat of arms. In 1701, after the battle of Chiari, Eugene of Savoy had asked the village to warn him if the Franco-Spanish moved towards the Oglio: nobody felt bound to, and in reprisal his army sacked the place, destroying whole quarters and robbing the church.