The Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace) in Mantua, also known as the Gonzaga Palace, is one of the city's main historic buildings. From 1308, it served as the official residence of the Lords of Mantua, initially the Bonacolsi, and later the main residence of the Gonzaga, who were lords, marquesses, and eventually dukes of the Virgilian city. It housed the reigning Gonzaga, his wife, their legitimate firstborn son, other legitimate children until adulthood, and notable guests.. It was designated the Royal Palace during the Austrian domination starting from the reign of Maria Theresa.
Each duke sought to add a wing for themselves and their art collections, resulting in an area exceeding 35,000 m², making it one of Europe's largest palacesPalazzo Ducale Mantova. after the palaces of the Vatican, the Louvre Palace, the Palace of Versailles, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Royal Palace of Venaria, Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau, the Winter Palace, or the Royal Palace of Stockholm. It comprises over 500 roomsComune di Mantova. Palazzo Ducale. and encompasses 7 gardens and 8 courtyards.
History
Bonacolsi and Gonzaga Period Distinct and separate spaces were constructed in different eras starting from the 13th century, initially by the Bonacolsi family and later under the impetus of the Gonzaga. Duke Guglielmo commissioned the Surveyor of Works, Giovanni Battista Bertani, to connect the various buildings organically, creating, from 1556, a single monumental and architectural complex, one of the largest in Europe (approximately 34,000 m²), stretching between the shore of Lake Inferiore and Piazza Sordello, the ancient Piazza San Pietro. After Bertani's death in 1576, the work was continued by Bernardino Facciotto, who completed the integration of gardens, squares, loggias, galleries, exedras, and courtyards, definitively shaping the ducal residence. Over the four centuries of Gonzaga rule, the palace gradually expanded through new constructions and modifications of existing structures.. Several nuclei emerged, named: Corte Vecchia, encompassing the oldest buildings facing Piazza Sordello Domus Nova, built by Luca Fancelli Corte Nuova, facing the lake, constructed by Giulio Romano and later expanded by Bertani and Viani Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara, built by Bertani. The complex also included some demolished buildings and courtyards, such as the Palazzina della Paleologa (demolished in 1899) and the Court Theater.
The palace's interior is largely bare due to financial difficulties that led the Gonzaga, starting with Duke Ferdinando, to sell artworks (especially to Charles I of England) and furnishings. Further losses occurred during the Sack of Mantua in 1630 and through removals by the last duke, Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, who fled to Venice in 1707.
Habsburg period Under the imperial governor Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1716, the palace was partially refurnished with paintings, sculptures, and furnishings from the former ducal residences of the Pico in Mirandola, whose last duke, Francesco Maria II, was declared deposed for “treason” by Emperor Joseph I in 1706.
Having lost its role as a multifunctional court serving the ruling family, the palace was stripped of its functions and significance throughout the Habsburg and French dominations, and again until the end of Austrian rule in 1866. It increasingly served military purposes as a cornerstone of the fortress that Mantua had become. Among the spaces used for military purposes was almost the entire Castello di San Giorgio, which the Austrian authorities also used as a prison, where Italian patriots, including some of the Belfiore martyrs, were incarcerated.
Ducal Palace Museum With Mantua's annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, the palace became part of the National Heritage. In 1887, the "monumental part" of the architectural complex that had formed the Gonzaga court was taken over by the Ministry of Public Education, enabling the first public visits to the palace that same year. The museum function can be dated to October 10, 1887, when a regular daily visitor register was established, albeit for non-paying visitors.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the palace underwent a major restoration project, particularly focusing on medieval structures: the Palazzo del Capitano, the Magna Domus, and the Castello di San Giorgio. Alongside economic support from the Municipality and Province, the Society for the Palazzo Ducale, a philanthropic association founded in 1902, contributed to these restoration efforts.
On March 11, 1915, a convention was signed between the State and local institutions to establish the Museum in the Palazzo Ducale di Mantova. The act recognized and confirmed the ownership of artworks by the Municipality or the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, but allowed their placement in the rooms of the Gonzaga palace, the most prestigious complex for their display and enjoyment by the emerging cultural tourism.
In the 20th century, numerous donations and bequests enriched the collection, including those from Annibale Norsa (1916), Virgilio Scarpari Forattini (1921–1924), Maria Ottolini and Mario Musante (1955), Eleonora Cibele Buris (1958), Ugo Dolci (1959), and Nerina Mazzini Beduschi (1968).
In the 21st century, the monumental complex of Palazzo Ducale was struck by unusually intense seismic events. The 2012 Emilia earthquakes initially caused damage to several rooms of the Gonzaga palace (Sala di Manto, Galleria dei Mesi, Corridoio del Bertani). The palace, closed from May 20, 2012, was later partially reopened to tourists, requiring significant restoration work in Corte Nuova, the wing most affected by the tremors. The damage from the May 29 tremors was more severe, exacerbating earlier cracks, affecting the bell tower of the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara, and marginally damaging the famous Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna in the Castello di San Giorgio.
Following the consolidation work on the Castello di San Giorgio, the Camera degli Sposi was reopened to visitors on April 3, 2015. Simultaneously, the collection of Mantuan industrialist Romano Freddi was displayed on loan, comprising about a hundred Gonzaga-era works, including a panel by Giulio Romano and his pupils and a fragment of the altarpiece The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity by Rubens, depicting Francesco IV.
Visitors In 2011, Palazzo Ducale had 220,143 visitors, which dropped to 160,634 in 2012 due to the seismic events of May 20 and 29, which necessitated a reduced visiting route excluding the Castello di San Giorgio and the Camera degli Sposi. By the end of June 2016, during "Mantua Italian Capital of Culture 2016," visitors had nearly reached 200,000. By the end of 2016, 367,470 visitors were recorded. In 2023, approximately 287,000 visitors were recorded.
The complex
The architectural ensemble of Palazzo Ducale is striking for its size (35,000 m² with over 1,000 rooms) and the complexity of its interconnected corridors, earning it the name "city-palace."
Corte Vecchia Corte Vecchia is the oldest core of the palace, comprising the medieval buildings of the Palazzo del Capitano and the Magna Domus facing Piazza Sordello.
Palazzo del Capitano and Magna Domus The Palazzo del Capitano is the oldest building in Palazzo Ducale, commissioned by Guido Bonacolsi at the end of the 13th century. Initially built with two floors and separated from the Magna Domus by an alley, it was raised by one floor in the early 14th century and connected to the Magna Domus by a monumental portico facade, which remains largely unchanged today. The added second floor consists of a single vast hall (67x15 m) called the Hall of the Armory, also known as the Hall of the Diet, as it hosted the Diet of Mantua in 1459. This distinguished space is currently abandoned and in need of restoration.
The Pisanello Cycle
Antonio Pisano, known as Pisanello, painted a grand cycle of Arthurian-themed chivalric frescoes between 1433 and 1437 in the room now named after him, depicting the Battle of Louverzep, intended to glorify the patron Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, who is also depicted in the artwork. These frescoes narrate the epic tale of King Arthur, whose stories were highly popular at the time as they embodied the ideals of chivalric behavior.
This fresco cycle was never completed for unknown reasons. The frescoes were covered by the late 16th century with faux marble decorations and in 1701 with a frieze featuring portraits of the Gonzaga from the first Luigi to the last Ferdinando Carlo, leading the room to be called the Hall of the Princes. Around 1810, further neoclassical updates were added above the frieze. The frescoes were rediscovered and restored between 1965 and 1970, thanks to superintendent Giovanni Paccagnini, who intuited the presence of a significant pictorial cycle from traces visible in the attic. Today, the Pisanello rooms house fragments of the frescoes and their preparatory sinopie.
Apartment of Isabella d'Este in the Corte Vecchia
Corte Vecchia regained prominence when Isabella d'Este moved from the Castle in 1519 to the ground floor of this ancient sector of the Gonzaga palace, in the so-called widow’s apartment. Isabella’s apartment consisted of two wings, now divided by the entrance to the Courtyard of Honor. In the more private Grotta wing, she brought wooden furnishings and art collections from her two famous studioli, the grotta and the studiolo. The latter contained paintings, now housed in the Louvre Museum, commissioned between 1496 and 1506 from Mantegna (Parnassus and Triumph of the Virtues), Lorenzo Costa (Isabella d'Este in the Kingdom of Harmony and Kingdom of Como), and Perugino (The Battle Between Love and Chastity), along with works by Correggio (Allegory of Vice and Allegory of Virtue). Another notable space in this wing is the "Camera Granda" or "Scalcheria," frescoed in 1522 by the Mantuan Lorenzo Leonbruno. The apartment also included other rooms in the wing called "Santa Croce," named after an ancient church from Matilda’s era, on whose remains reception rooms were built, such as the Hall of Isabella's Deeds, the Imperial Hall or Fireplace Hall, the Hall of Marigolds, the Hall of Plaques, and the Hall of Deeds. The Secret Garden is also an integral part of the Grotta Apartment.
Santa Croce Vecchia was a small church, typical of the period around the year 1000. Its existence is documented by a record from May 10, 1083, signed by Matilda of Canossa. Adjacent to the earliest buildings of the future Palazzo Ducale, it likely served as the palatine church of the Bonacolsi and Gonzaga. However, the Gonzaga’s well-known passion for construction led to the demolition of the ancient Matilda-era church. Authorized by Pope Martin V, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga demolished the old church around 1421 and built a late Gothic chapel with the same dedication nearby, now deconsecrated but still identifiable by the small courtyard accessing Isabella d’Este’s widow’s apartment.
Later, Guglielmo Gonzaga (1550–1587) transformed Corte Vecchia’s spaces, creating the Refectory overlooking the Hanging Garden and the Hall of Mirrors, intended for music.
Hall of Rivers, Tapestry Room, Hall of the Zodiac
During the Habsburg period, the Refectory was renovated, resulting in the Hall of Rivers, where Giorgio Anselmi painted (circa 1775) giants representing the rivers of the Mantuan territory on the walls.