Manerba del Garda

The tower of Manerba's castle was not there merely to defend the village: it was the meeting point of a radial pattern linking the towers of every comune in the Valtenesi, a system for seeing one another and passing warnings at a distance. Inside the keep, the main tower, there was a cistern that collected rainwater. Then, from the sixteenth century on, that fortress began to serve as a refuge for bandits and outlaws, and the Republic of Venice settled the matter in the most direct way: in 1574 it had the walls pulled down.

The name is said to come from Minerva arx, the citadel of Minerva, and legend has it that the goddess came to hide here, planted her olive trees — of which she was the protector — and taught her arts; others trace it to the Cenomani Gauls, in the sense of a fortified place where the chief resides. Below the Rocca the remains of a Mesolithic village have been found, and the pile-dwelling site of San Sivino-Gabbiano is on the UNESCO world heritage list.