Patron saint festival In 200 days
Saints Philip and James, patrons of the land of the Calchera
📅 Every year, on 3 May
Gavardo celebrates its patrons, Saints Philip and James, on 3 May, in the church dedicated to them.
Gavardo stands where the Chiese leaves the hills, at the mouth of the Valle Sabbia; the name is of uncertain origin and seems to come from a Celtic root meaning river. In the centre the river and the Naviglio Grande Bresciano, an old canal that once turned the Benedictines' mills, enclose a strip of land known here as the isolo. An old rhyme gives the town the mountains for a crown and the Chiese for a mirror.
One mill survives, from 1528, on the bank of the Chiese in via Molino; in 1777 it stood at the heart of a quarrel with farmers from Montichiari and Lonato, who believed the miller held back the river to feed the canal. On 29 January 1945 American aircraft sent to destroy the bridge over the Chiese missed and hit a block of the old centre, killing 52 civilians. The arms show a rampant leopard on blue with a lance.
The Gavardo guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Gavardo 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Gavardo
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Gavardo, but an easy day trip away.
certosa di Parma 📍 Parma · 8.3 km The charterhouse of Stendhal's title, now a police school and rarely open. Parma Baptistery 📍 Parma · 11 km Benedetto Antelami’s pink marble masterpiece, a European landmark bridging Romanesque and Gothic design in Parma. arco di San Lazzaro 📍 Parma · 9.8 km Arch of San Lazzaro in Parma, built in 1628 on via Emilia Est, restored in 2005. chiesa di San Sepolcro 📍 Parma · 11 km The Holy Sepulchre canons' church on the via Emilia, with a coffered ceiling. abbazia di San Giovanni Evangelista 📍 Parma · 11 km Correggio's second dome in Parma, and the Benedictine pharmacy with its jars in rows. teatro Farnese 📍 Parma · 12 km The Farnese wooden theatre in the Pilotta, inaugurated with a naval battle in the stalls.