In 1579 the marquis Giulio Cesare Gonzaga decided to make Pomponesco his ideal city, as his cousin Vespasiano had done with Sabbioneta. The hexagonal castle became the prince's residence, around it grew the squared-off building of the Gonzaga towns, and in 1580 the village was raised to a county and began striking coin in a mint of its own. It did not last: in 1593 Giulio Cesare moved his court to Bozzolo, and from then on the decline set in. In 1818 the bricks of the castle, by then a ruin, were used to strengthen the embankment of the Po.
The Latin-cross plan, though, has remained, and the arcaded square has been filmed by half of Italian cinema: Bertolucci set Strategia del ragno and Novecento here, and in 1983 the last Don Camillo was shot in it. From the end of the eighteenth century the trade in grain and cattle and the traffic on the river had brought several Jewish families here — among them that of the writer Alberto Cantoni: of the synagogue, now absorbed into a café, only the dome can be seen, and at the end of via Fratelli Cantoni is the small Jewish cemetery.
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📅 Every year, on the second Sunday of July
On the second Sunday of July Pomponesco, a municipality of 1,763 inhabitants in the province of Mantua, celebrates its patrons Santa Felicita and the seven martyrs.
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.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Pomponesco, but an easy day trip away.
