Lovere

Piazza XIII Martiri

Square · free entry · 45.81690, 10.07518

the drawing room of the village, straight onto the lake, with pastel buildings that hold bars, restaurants and pastry shops. The name recalls the killing of thirteen partisans during the Second World War. At the centre stands the Fontana della Libertà. The boats arrive and leave here, concerts and events fill the square on summer evenings, and on Saturday mornings the weekly market goes up.

Galleria dell'Accademia Tadini

Museum · 45.81465, 10.07296

the oldest museum in Lombardy, open to the public since 1828, in a neoclassical palace on the lakeside. It was the wish of Count Luigi Tadini, a Veronese nobleman who had settled in Lovere, to show his collection and honour the memory of his son Faustino, who died in 1799: for him he commissioned the Stele Tadini from Antonio Canova, carved between 1819 and 1821 and set in the chapel at the centre of the garden. Inside, works from the fourteenth century to the present day: Jacopo Bellini, Paris Bordon, Francesco Hayez and Canova's terracotta sketch for Religion. The rooms on the main floor keep their original nineteenth century furnishings, on the second floor the Museo dell'Ottocento holds three paintings by Hayez, and the visit closes with the modern and contemporary collection. Since 1927 the Accademia has run a season of classical concerts in the central hall and keeps open the music and drawing schools its founder wanted.

349 4118779 · accademiatadini.it

Torre Civica

Monument · 45.81637, 10.07391

it stands in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, once the centre of political and economic power in the village, next to the Palazzo del Podestà. It carries the clock and the fresco of the Lion of St Mark, a reminder of the three and a half centuries of Venetian rule, from 1442 to 1797. Climbing the inner staircase you meet the "12 ore di Lovere" on the walls, twelve moments in the history of the village from its Celtic origins to today; from the top you see the whole town, the lake and the mountains, and on clear days the view reaches Monte Isola and the Brescia shore. Information at the Infopoint in Piazza XIII Martiri.

Basilica di Santa Maria in Valvendra

Church · free entry · 45.81942, 10.07713

at the northern end of the village, the largest church in the diocese of Brescia. To build it, between 1473 and 1483, the course of the Valvendra stream that gives it its name was diverted. The Renaissance facade is sober, fronted by a portico with 33 descending steps, one for each year of Christ's life; the three nave interior, on the other hand, is frescoed from end to end, among the highest expressions of Lombard Renaissance classicism with Venetian influences: the painted architecture of Ottavio Viviani (1645-46), the Coronation of the Virgin by Ottavio Amigoni on the central vault, Prophets, Sibyls and Apostles down the side aisles. Look for the seventeenth century organ that came from the Duomo Vecchio in Brescia, its doors painted outside by Floriano Ferramola (the Annunciation) and inside by Moretto (Saints Faustino and Giovita on horseback), the inlaid sixteenth century wooden choir, the high altar from the Fantoni workshop of Rovetta and the large seventeenth century canvases on the life of Christ. It was built for the merchant class grown rich on the "panno di Lovere": their coats of arms are still there on the walls.

The lakeside and the marina

Walk · free entry · 45.81542, 10.07404

two kilometres of walks on the water. The best known stretch is the promenade named after Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the English writer who in the eighteenth century called Lovere the most romantic place she had ever seen. The marina is a modern structure, among the best equipped in Europe, with green spaces and areas for recreation and shopping: boat, kayak, windsurf and sailing hire all start from here.

The medieval village

Village · free entry · 45.81692, 10.07460

the grid of alleys in the historic centre. The Portichetto San Giorgio, a covered passage with arches and wooden beams, joins via Gramsci to via Cavour; from there you climb to the Chiesa di San Giorgio, of the fourteenth century, which behind a sober facade keeps works by Flemish painters and by the Bergamo school. Of the old fortifications the Torre Soca (twelfth to thirteenth century), the Torricella and the Torre degli Alghisi remain; among the tower houses stand the palaces of the merchant families, the Celeri, the Bazzini, the Barboglio.