Stretching along the Venetian banks of Lake Garda is a continuous sequence of defensive systems that speak to centuries of strategic control and protection of the local area. Scaliger castles, curtain walls and Venetian fortifications design a landscape in which water becomes a defensive element and military architecture is an integral feature of the local towns.
Perched on a rocky spur overlooking Lake Garda, the Scaliger Castle of Malcesine is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in the Veneto. Its crenellated walls, fortified courtyards and imposing keep tell of centuries of conflict and domination. Today the castle is open to visitors and houses the Natural History Museum of Monte Baldo and Garda and the Goethe Room, which contains images of the lake and the Castle that the poet sketched during his stay.
Torri del Benaco owes its name to the "torri" - or towers - that for centuries kept watch over one of the most strategic stretches of Lake Garda. Dominated by the Scaliger Castle and directly facing the waters of Garda, the village still conserves traces of the ancient walls and of the defensive layout developed between the Middle Ages and the Scaliger period. Today it is home to an ethnographic museum and preserves a historic eighteenth-century lemon house, one of the few that can still be visited on the lake.
The origins of Bardolino's fortifications date back to the ninth century thanks to King Berengar. The defensive system was later expanded by the Scaligers, who transformed the town into a single walled enclosure. Although many of the structures have been lost, the medieval layout can still be seen in the urban fabric and in the remains of the fortifications: Porta San Giovanni to the north and Porta Verona to the south, a few stretches of the wall and a defensive tower on the waterfront.
The walls that completely surround the historic centre make Lazise one of the most complete examples of a fortified town on Lake Garda. Built during the Scaliger period, it includes the castle, crenellated walls, towers and the three gates that still provide access to the town; the defensive complex was completed by the military harbour and the arsenal, later converted into the Dogana Veneta, which today hosts events and cultural activities.
Contested by the Scaligers and the Visconti, Peschiera del Garda took on its present form under the rule of the Serenissima, which transformed it into one of the most advanced strongholds of its defensive system. To this day, the bastions, curtain walls and monumental gates create a unique urban layout that is perfectly integrated with the water. Since 2017 the complex has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the transnational site Works of Defence of the Venetian Republic between the 16th and 17th centuries: Stato da Terra – Stato da Mar Occidentale.
The very name Castelnuovo del Garda - 'New Castle of Garda' - recalls its fortified origins: in fact, a medieval castle once stood on the summit of the hill overlooking the historic centre. The current Torre Viscontea, sole surviving element of the fortress and symbol of the town, bears witness to the important defensive role the town played when, after defeating the Scaligers, Gian Galeazzo Visconti built a new castle protected by a double ring of walls.
The Scaliger Castle and the Visconti Bridge are the symbols of the fortified system that for centuries protected Valeggio sul Mincio. From the castle walls, which look over the town from the top of the hill, to the imposing dam-bridge commissioned by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the town preserves evidence of a complex apparatus that defended one of the main crossing points of the Mincio.
Today these places can also be discovered by bike, following the Mincio River cycle path which, starting from Peschiera del Garda, passes through the nearby town of Borghetto and goes all the way to Mantua.