Castello Scaligero

The Scaliger Castle, with its crenellated defenses, five towers, and the keep, is owned by the noble Bernini family. The defensive walls remain intact with their respective three passage gates: to the south, Porta del Lion; to the east, Porta San Zeno; and to the north, Porta Cansignorio. Today, the castle is surrounded by a wonderful romantic park where various municipal events are often organized.

The walls, built to protect the first Free Municipality of Italy (983), date back to the early Middle Ages and guarded the castle whose origins are linked to the history of Rome, which named the village Lacisium.

The Castle was likely rebuilt on Roman foundations in the Middle Ages around the 11th century when the territory was governed by the Venetian Republic and used as a residence for Venetian magistrates.

The fortifications protected the inhabitants from foreign incursions, but also from the claims of the Veronese family Turrisendi, lords of Garda and much of the Giudicaria Gardense.

Over the centuries, the castle was expanded, destroyed, and restored, serving as a stronghold for the Scaligeri, Visconti, Venetians, Landsknechts, French, and Austrians.

Semi-destroyed and used as a quarry for building materials, the castle was saved by Count Burri who, after purchasing it, restored it by transforming the port of the ancient castle, which had turned into a swamp, into the castle garden.

The Scaliger castle has the classic square layout, with five towers and the keep.

At the two entrances, the coats of arms of the Scaligeri can still be seen, carved by Emperor Maximilian to appease the resentment of the Lazise inhabitants towards the power exercised forcefully by the Scaligeri.

What remains of the ancient Scaliger Castle is included within the grounds of Villa Buri, now Bernini, and is not open to the public as it is still inhabited.

However, it is possible to visit the Walls around the castle, crowned with battlements that are well preserved.

To take a walk inside and outside the walls, a stroll that lasts about an hour, one must park outside the city walls.

Lazise has always had three entrance gates equipped with drawbridges, which have been restored several times.

The historic center is accessed through the Upper Gate, commonly referred to today as the San Zeno gate.

Opened in the medieval walls, there are two other Military Gates: Lion Gate, so named because it had the emblem of the Serenissima with the lion of San Marco above it, for access from the south, and New Gate, named so because it is the last one built, although it is still today called Porta Cansignorio after the ancestor of the Della Scala family, the builder of the Castle.