Castellucchio

A couple of kilometres from the village the Osone stream is split in two by a hydraulic work whose design goes back to the Bonacolsi, the lords of Mantua before the Gonzaga. The Old Osone carries on along its age-old bed, the New Osone is channelled southwards as far as the Rocca di Montanara and then turns north again. It was not merely a matter of irrigation: in case of war those works would have poured the water of the Osone into the belt of canals of the Serraglio, flooding the western side of Mantua in order to defend it.

The village is named after a small fortification — castrum, or else "the castle of Lucius" — and its stronghold was rebuilt in 1379 at the will of Ludovico I Gonzaga. At the highest point the civic tower still stands, serving as the gateway to the Castello quarter: it has a square base, battlements and a bell chamber with a three-light window on each side, so that the sound would spread in every direction. Inside the tower there is now a museum of old weapons. The road to Mantua was put back into order by Napoleon, who named it after his wife: strada Giuseppina.