Patron saint festival In 191 days
Saint George the Martyr, patron of the land of the Archangels
📅 Every year, on 23 April
San Giorgio Bigarello celebrates Saint George the Martyr on 23 April.
The comune was created on 1 January 2019 by merging San Giorgio di Mantova and Bigarello, and its seat lies in neither of the two places that name it: it is at Mottella. A first referendum had failed, the yes vote carrying only in San Giorgio; the second passed on both sides. The older name comes from a fortified borough on the eastern shore of the Mantua lakes, guarding the bridge into the city; it was levelled to make room for newer fortifications, and since some hamlets passed to Mantua the ground it stood on lies outside the municipal boundary.
What survives of it is the rocca di Sparafucile, named after a character in Verdi's Rigoletto. In 2007, during the excavation of a Roman villa at Valdaro, two Neolithic skeletons came to light buried face to face, locked in an embrace that takes in the legs as well: the only double burial known in northern Italy, now shown at the national archaeological museum in Mantua.
The San Giorgio Bigarello guide
What to eat here 2
Risotto alla Milanese · Sbrisolona
Where to stay
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Events & festivals 1
Next up: Saint George the Martyr, patron of the land of the Archangels, Friday 23 April
Getting there
Nearest airport: Verona Catullo, 24 km away
🎉 Festivals and feasts in San Giorgio Bigarello 1
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🍝 The flavours of San Giorgio Bigarello
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 San Giorgio Bigarello
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside San Giorgio Bigarello, 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.