Pontevico sits on the Oglio's left bank, and its name explains it: Pontis Vicus, village of the bridge. The Via Brixiana ran through, the consular road from Cremona's river port to Brescia, and the pagus was likely the portus brixianus, landing goods brought up the Po; near the church of Santa Maria in Ripa d'Oglio, perhaps once a pagan temple, a Roman house and a Minerva statue turned up. Some scholars, following the Tabula Peutingeriana, read Pontis Vicus as the Betriacum of the two battles of 69, in the civil war that ended in Vespasian's triumph.
The castle, raised against Magyar raids between the late ninth and early tenth century, is the munitissimum castrum of the charters. On 16 October 1453 Milan's army laid siege with 20,000 foot and 3,500 horse out of France; a few hundred isolated Venetians were inside, the town resisted and was levelled. Venice rebuilt it and made it a free borough; the fortress changed trades, a foundry in 1803 and then a ruin, pulled down by an Austrian nobleman who meant to redo it in neo-Gothic and died as work began. Since 1901 it has held abbot Bassano Cremonesini's neuropsychiatric institute; on the shield a gold lion grips a lily under the motto in feritate comitas, courtesy amid roughness.
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📅 Every year, on 12 May; August brings Saint Firmus and Saint Roch, October brings Ripa d'Oglio
Pontevico celebrates Saint Pancras on 12 May. Annually, in August, Saint Firmus and Saint Roch are celebrated, while in October Ripa d'Oglio is celebrated.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Pontevico, but an easy day trip away.
