Sabbioneta ( Casalasco-Viadanese : Subiunèda ) is a town and comune in the province of Mantua , Lombardy region, Northern Italy . It is situated about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Parma , not far from the northern bank of the Po River . It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). It was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2008.
20-553: Sabbioneta was founded by Vespasiano I Gonzaga in the late 16th century along the ancient Roman Via Vitelliana, on a sandy bank of the Po (whence the name, meaning "sandy" in Italian); he was its first duke, using it as a personal fortress and residence. It was also during this period that it became a minor musical centre; composers such as Benedetto Pallavicino (c. 1551–1601) were employed here by Vespasiano Gonzaga, prior to his moving to
40-516: A Grandee of Spain and then Viceroy of Navarre and Valencia . In 1556 he started his major project, the construction of a new, ideal city between Mantua and Parma which he christened "Sabbioneta" ("Sandy"), as it was to rise on the sandy banks of the Po River . The project was finished in 1591. Sabbioneta had been declared an autonomous Duchy in 1577, thanks to the personal support of Vespasiano's friend Rudolf II of Habsburg , whom he had met in
60-405: A half-moon window , or fanlight when bars separating its panes fan out radially. If a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the arch above the door, masonry or glass is a lunette. If the door is a major access, and the lunette above is massive and deeply set, it may be called a tympanum . A lunette is also formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at
80-599: A system of artificial raised parts that enclose the city of Sabbioneta and a wide part of the adjacent council territory, marking a vast ring-like circuit of about twenty kilometers. In 2008, Sabbioneta was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a recognition of its perfect example of practical application of Renaissance urban planning theories. Sabbioneta is also known for its historic Jewish Ghetto and Synagogue, and in particular for its Hebrew printing-press . In 1551 Tobias Foa set up
100-625: Is remembered as a patron of the arts and the founder of Sabbioneta , a town in Lombardy designed according to the Renaissance principles of the " ideal city ". He was born in Fondi , a Colonna fief in the southern Latium , the son of Isabella Colonna and the condottiero Louis Gonzaga , lord of Palazzolo, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Gonzaga , Dukes of Mantua . Soon orphaned, he
120-526: The Sistine Chapel ceiling inspired Michelangelo to come up with inventive compositions for the spaces. In the Neoclassical architecture of Robert Adam and his French contemporaries such as Ange-Jacques Gabriel , a favorite scheme set a series of windows within shallow blind arches. The lunettes above lent themselves to radiating motifs: a sunburst of bellflower husks, radiating fluting,
140-685: The "orange flag" eulogy of the Touring Club of Italy. The territory features the church of St. Anthony Abbot in the district of Villa Pasquali, designed by Ferdinando Galli-Bibbiena and built by his son Antonio Galli, and the small sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vigoreto that in ancient times was annexed to the convent of the Capuchins . Outside the gunnel city, the district banks of Vespasiano I Gonzaga are also reported:
160-472: The Spanish court. He died at Sabbioneta in 1591. Vespasiano Gonzaga married 3 times : Lunette A lunette (French lunette , 'little moon') is a half-moon–shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc taken from an oval. A lunette window is commonly called
180-506: The Teatro all'Antica was used. The second season of the television series I Medici , broadcast in 2018, used Sabbioneta in some scenes to represent Renaissance Florence. Paperback: 332 pages; Publisher: SugarCo (1990); ISBN 88-7198-040-9 Vespasiano I Gonzaga Vespasiano I Gonzaga , Duke of Sabbioneta (6 December 1531 – 26 February 1591) was an Italian nobleman , diplomat, writer, military engineer and condottiero . He
200-689: The antique collection to the Academy of Mantua in 1772 by the Teresian decree and the burning of the Sala dei Cavalli in the Palazzo Ducale in 1815. The church heritage remains conspicuous, promoted and redeveloped by a policy of recovery and enhancement over the last 25 years. According to the American lawyer and writer Richard Paul Roe, the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
220-400: The level of the imposts , where the arch springs. If the top of the lunette itself is bordered by a hood mould it can also be considered a pediment . The term is also employed to describe the section of interior wall between the curves of a vault and its springing line . A system of intersecting vaults produces lunettes on the wall surfaces above a cornice. The lunettes in the structure of
SECTION 10
#1732773366248240-523: The long-standing question of the succession of the small duchy, which divided the heirs for almost a century, as well as the Austrian dominion first and the Napoleonic one later, deprived the city of important buildings, such as the fortress, the armoury and the lunettes placed outside the city wall. Pillage and confiscation deprived the city of some prestigious features, firstly, the confiscation of
260-655: The main Gonzaga city of Mantua . Located on an alluvial ground between the Po and Oglio rivers, as well as along the route of the ancient Via Vitelliana, it occupied a strategic position in the heart of the Po Valley . For Vespasiano Gonzaga, Sabbioneta was to be above all a fortress and, at that time, the power of its walls certainly made it one of the most well-equipped bulwarks in Lombardy of Spanish domination. Sabbioneta
280-562: The press; he had, however, published certain "anti-Christian books" and his career was "forcibly ended". His work and possibly his type were taken up by a Christian printer, Vicenzo Conte . Vespasiano Gonzaga's town, designed according to the Renaissance principles of the Ideal City, included: The church and the summer palace contain frescoes by artists of the Campi family of Cremona . On 7 July 2008, Sabbioneta, together with Mantua
300-679: The shooting of the RAI television show I Promessi Sposi ('The Betrothed') was also filmed: in particular, amid the columns of the Gallery of the Ancients, scenes of the plague were shot. Also for the French film Marquise , released in 1997 under the direction of Véra Belmont, some scenes were shot in Sabbioneta, as well as for the 1999 film Amore nello specchio by Salvatore Maira, in which
320-483: The small state of Sabbioneta was mainly concentrated in the eastern extremity of the diocese of Cremona and it represented a necessary crossroads both for trade midway along the Po and for communications between the lowlands of Brescia and Emilia Romagna . The most prosperous period in the history of this city was in its reconstruction years, in which it was under the dominion of Prince Vespasiano I Gonzaga, which also became his residence. Sabbioneta has been honored with
340-591: Was above all the capital of a small state placed between great regional states: the Duchy of Milan to the west, ruled at that time by the Spanish governorate; the Duchy of Mantua to the east, over the River Oglio, governed by ancient line of the Gonzaga , cousins of Vespasiano; the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza to the south of Po, under the domain of Farnese family, supportive of Gonzaga himself. The territory of
360-412: Was declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site due to its exceptional nature as a newly founded city built in just over 30 years by the will of Prince Vespasiano I Gonzaga. According to UNESCO, Sabbioneta represents a perfect example of the application of Renaissance theories on how an ideal city should be designed. The vicissitudes that immediately occurred after the death of Vespasiano, especially
380-603: Was educated under his aunt Giulia Gonzaga , who had moved to Naples to escape attempts from other members of the Colonna family to kill Vespasiano in order to obtain the fiefs he had inherited from his mother. At the age of eleven he was sent to the Spanish royal court to complete his education under King Philip II of Spain , to whom he was distantly related through mutual descent from Kings of Aragon. The latter found in Vespasiano one of his most faithful advisers, and made him
400-537: Was not set in Athens but in Sabbioneta, known as "little Athens" ever since its foundation. In 1970, The Spider's Stratagem by Bernardo Bertolucci was filmed in Sabbioneta. In the film, the village takes on the imaginary name of Tara. Inside the Gallery of the Ancients and in some rooms of the Palace Garden, some scenes of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore , were filmed in 1971. More recently (1980s) in Sabbioneta
#247752