Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
32 22 97; Piazza delle Erbe; 10am-1pm & 3-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm Sat & Sun)
, sits just below
street level alongside Palazzo della Ragione. Narrowly missing destruction during the
frenetic Gonzaga refurbishment of the town, this weathered, red-brick sanctuary once sat
within the heart of the Jewish ghetto and its walls are still decorated with the shadowy re-
mains of 12th- and 13th-century frescoes.
Basilica di Sant'Andrea
BASILICA
( 0376 32 85 04; Piazza Andrea Mantegna; 8am-noon & 3-7pm Mon-Fri, 10.30am-noon & 3-6pm Sat,
11.45am-12.15pm & 3-6pm Sun)
This towering basilica safeguards the golden vessels said to hold
earth soaked by the blood of Christ. Longinus, the Roman soldier who speared Christ on
the cross, is said to have scooped up the earth and buried it in Mantua after leaving
Palestine. Today, these containers rest beneath a marble octagon in front of the altar and
are paraded around Mantua in a grand procession on Good Friday.
Ludovico II Gonzaga commissioned Leon Battista Alberti to design the basilica in
1472. Its vast, arched interior is free from pillars and has just one sweeping central aisle,
which is dotted with frescoes, gilded ceiling bosses and columns cleverly painted to look
like carved stone.
The first chapel on the left contains the tomb of Andrea Mantegna, the man responsible
for the splendours in the Palazzo Ducale's
Camera degli Sposi.
The chapel is beautifully
lit and also contains a painting of the Holy Family and John the Baptist, attributed to
Mantegna and his school.
Palazzo Te
PALACE
( 0376 32 32 66;
www.palazzote.it
; Viale Te; adult/reduced €8/5; 1-6pm Mon, 9am-6pm Tue-Sun; )
Hardly more modest in scale than the Palazzo Ducale, Frederico II's (1500-1540) suburb-
an villa where he escaped for love trysts with his mistress Isabella Boschetti, is decorated
in playboy style with stunning frescoes, playful motifs and encoded symbols. A Renais-
sance pleasure-dome, it is the finest work of star architect Giulio Romano, whose sumptu-
ous Mannerist scheme fills the palace with fanciful flights of imagination.
Having escaped a Roman prison sentence for designing pornographic prints, Romano,
Raphael's most gifted student, was the perfect choice for the commission, which repres-
ents one of the great Mannerist buildings in Italy. Using the trompe l'œil technique, he es-
