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 →The town grew around the abbey of Polirone, founded in 1007 by Tedaldo di Canossa and one of the leading Cluniac houses among the more than a thousand of medieval Europe. Matilda of Canossa favoured it and gave it in her lifetime to the pope, who entrusted it to Hugh of Cluny; when she died in 1115 she chose to be buried here, in the oratory of Santa Maria. Giulio Romano worked on the rebuilding of the basilica.
In the seventeenth century Pope Urban VIII bought Matilda's remains for St Peter's, where they lie in a mausoleum designed by Bernini. Napoleon's suppression of 1797 closed the monastery: the church went to the parish, the rest to civil uses, and the paintings and altarpieces were scattered among foreign collections and museums. The town's arms show a green serpent biting its own tail around two clasped hands, above a blue base with silver waves.
🍝 The flavours of San Benedetto Po
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near San Benedetto Po
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside San Benedetto Po, but an easy day trip away.
chiesa di Madonna di Campagna 📍 Verona · 14 km Sanmicheli's church built around a fresco that escaped demolition. Arena di Verona 📍 Verona · 18 km Four arches still standing after the 1117 earthquake, and opera on Roman steps since 1913. Casa di Giulietta 📍 Verona · 17 km Verona's most visited monument is a medieval tower house famously transformed into a shrine to Shakespeare's Juliet. Piazza delle Erbe 📍 Verona · 17 km The Roman forum turned marketplace: towers, frescoed palaces and a fountain from 1368. ponte Pietra 📍 Verona · 17 km Verona's Roman bridge, blown up in 1945 and rebuilt with the stones fished out of the Adige. Porta Vescovo 📍 Verona · 16 km Scaliger gate from 1287-1289, rebuilt by Venice in 1520 and later reshaped by the Austrians.