Ponte Visconteo

Commonly called Ponte lungo di Borghetto it was once part of a vast fortified complex to protect the eastern borders of the Duchy of the Visconti.

Ponte Visconteo it consists of a fortified dam built by the Duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti and designed by the architect Domenico dei Benintendi from Florence between 1393 and 1395. With it they wanted to ensure the impenetrability of the borders to the east of the duchy on a stretch of 65 meters. After the victory of the Duke of Milan, allied with the Gonzaga and the Carrara on Antonio della Scala in 1387, the territory in Visconti possession in fact includes Lake Garda and the Mincio valley, the domain lasted seventeen years. The dam connected to the Scaligero Castle with high crenellated walls and was integrated with the Serraglio fortified complex, which was about sixteen kilometers long and extended into the Verona plain up to the Grezzano marshes.

Towards the 1920s, the iron bridge was built which allowed the ponte visconteo to become viable; in the following decades works were carried out for the Virgilio canal, for the passage of the railway and the construction of the diversion channel to protect the town from the floods of the river Mincio. Restoration work began only at the end of the 20th century.