Mantua

People settled in the marshes of the Mincio, the river that flows from Lake Garda to the Po, from Neolithic times, and Mantua began as an island settlement around 2000 BC. After the Gallic Cenomani it passed to Rome, and the poet Virgil was born in 70 BC at a village near the city now called Virgilio. Lombards, the Canossa family and the countess Matilda followed; the round church of San Lorenzo dates from their time. After Matilda's death Mantua became a free commune, and in 1198 Alberto Pitentino reshaped the Mincio into the four lakes that defended the city, three of which survive.

In 1328 the Gonzaga seized power from the Bonacolsi, and for almost four centuries they made Mantua one of Europe's leading courts. Vittorino da Feltre opened his humanist school here in 1423, Andrea Mantegna served as court painter, Isabella d'Este assembled her famous studiolo, Federico II became the first duke in 1530 and commissioned Palazzo Te from Giulio Romano, and in 1607 Claudio Monteverdi premiered L'Orfeo at the court of Vincenzo I. After the direct line died out in 1627 the city declined, and in 1708 the last duke was deposed in favour of Austria.

Austrian rule brought a revival of academies and palaces, interrupted by Napoleon's siege of 1796–97; in 1810 the Tyrolean leader Andreas Hofer was shot at the city's Porta Giulia. Mantua became one of Austria's Quadrilatero fortresses before joining the Kingdom of Italy. In 2008 its old town was listed by UNESCO with Sabbioneta, the 2012 Emilia earthquake damaged historic buildings, and in 2016 it was Italian Capital of Culture.

The Gonzaga court left Mantua a heritage out of proportion to its size: the Ducal Palace, Palazzo Te, Alberti's churches, and the work of Mantegna, Giulio Romano, Pisanello and Rubens, all of whom the family hosted. The city holds a central place in the history of opera, as the place where Monteverdi's L'Orfeo was first performed in 1607, and Verdi set Rigoletto here — a medieval house on Piazza Sordello is called Rigoletto's house. Mozart, aged 13, played at the new Teatro Bibiena in January 1770.

Literature is part of the local identity, from Virgil, commemorated by a statue in the lakeside park of Piazza Virgiliana, to Shakespeare, who gave Mantua a part in both Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. Since 1997 Festivaletteratura has filled the palaces and squares each September with authors and readers, and in September 2011 the Lovers of Valdaro, a pair of embracing skeletons about 6,000 years old found near the city in 2007, were first shown in public at the National Archaeological Museum.

The calendar also includes the August gathering of madonnari, chalk street painters, at the sanctuary of the Grazie in Curtatone, and the Mantova Medievale festival with its staged battle before the Castle of St George. The racing driver Tazio Nuvolari and the cyclist Learco Guerra are local heroes, and in 2017 Mantua, with Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona, was named European Capital of Gastronomy as part of the Eastern Lombardy district.

About 50,000 people live in the city — 50,215 in 2026 — and the neighbouring municipalities of Porto Mantovano, Curtatone, Borgo Virgilio and others form one continuous residential area with it. The population is older than average, with seniors making up more than a quarter of residents, and immigrants made up about a fifth in 2025.

The economy rests on the surrounding farmland of the Po plain: livestock and agriculture and the industries that process them, especially butter, cheese and cured meats such as Salame mantovano, alongside public services, tourism and commerce; as a provincial capital and the seat of a bishop, the city also has many administrative and church offices. In 2017 an environmental group ranked Mantua the best Italian city for quality of life and environment.

Daily life is unhurried. The arcaded squares fill for the evening stroll, and the lakes and the Mincio regional park, created in 1984, are the city's open space for walking and cycling. Andrea Murari was elected mayor in May 2026.

Mantuan cooking belongs to the Lombard tradition of butter, rice and slow-cooked meat, and to the farmland of the Po plain. A Mantuan speciality is tortelli di zucca, pasta filled with pumpkin and amaretti biscuits; tortelli, a family of stuffed pasta made across Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, can be square, half-moon or twisted into a hat-like shape. Salame mantovano heads a local tradition of cured meats, and the city's food industries produce butter and cheese.

The lakes and marshes of the Mincio and the Po hold catfish, tench, carp, eel and pike, the fish of the local waters. The signature sweet is sbrisolona, a crumbly almond cake.

Lambrusco, a slightly sparkling red wine meant to be drunk young, is made in a small number of zones, one of them around Mantua. Northern Italy's mostarda, candied fruit in a mustard-flavoured syrup, is traditionally served with boiled meats. Restaurants and trattorias cluster around Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza Sordello, and Mantua opened Italy's first farmers' market in 2006.