Patron saint festival In 95 days
Saint Anthony the Abbot, patron of Ostiglia
📅 Every year, on 17 January
Ostiglia celebrates Saint Anthony the Abbot on 17 January; the other patron, Saint Lawrence, is celebrated on 10 August.
Ostiglia stands on the Po, on the marshy plain where Lombardy meets Veneto. In Roman times it was Hostilia, a stop on the via Claudia Augusta Padana between Emilia and Verona, and the birthplace of the writer Cornelius Nepos in the first century BC. The name comes from the Latin personal name Hostilius; the town's arms, instead, show three communion hosts bearing the name of Jesus on red, with the three nails of the Passion below.
Verona made it a stronghold, with a castle built in 1151; under the Scaligeri a chain across the Po controlled river traffic. In 1717 Emperor Charles VI had it pulled down, its stone going into the fortifications of Mantua. In 1907 Arnoldo Mondadori began here, with the paper Luce, the firm that became Italy's largest publisher, later moved to Milan; don Giuseppe Greggiati's music collection stayed, left to the town by the priest and collector with nearly all his estate.
The Ostiglia guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Ostiglia 2
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Patron saint festival In 300 days
Saint Lawrence, patron of Ostiglia on the Po
📅 Every year, on 10 August
Ostiglia celebrates Saint Lawrence on 10 August; the other patron, Saint Anthony the Abbot, is celebrated on 17 January.
🍝 The flavours of Ostiglia
Sbrisolona crumbly almond and cornmeal cake, broken by hand
White and yellow flour, almonds, butter and sugar, broken by hand: sbrisolona is Mantova's cake, already served at the Gonzaga court.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Ostiglia
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Ostiglia, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola 📍 Carpi · 11 km Jesuit church of 1670-1682 in Carpi, on a Greek-cross plan, with scagliola altars and the diocesan museum. Basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Carpi · 11 km Carpi cathedral begun in 1514 to Peruzzi's design, reopened in 2017 after the 2012 earthquake. Chiesa di Santa Maria in Castello 📍 Carpi · 12 km Romanesque pieve of 1184, the oldest church in Carpi, with a Peruzzi façade and twelfth-century frescoes. Chiesa di San Bernardino da Siena 📍 Carpi · 12 km Patron church of Carpi, begun in 1604, with the reliquary bust of Saint Bernardino of Siena.