Riva del Garda and Garda Trentino are considered an outdoor paradise. Of course, we hope to spend beautiful days outdoors, walking and playing sports: sailing, wind surfing, biking, hiking, hicking, and all kinds of other activities.
But in case of rain, what to do?
Trentino, with its museums, offers countless opportunities to spend time pleasantly, even if it is raining outside: by car or public transportation, you can reach and visit the city of Trento with the Buonconsiglio Castle and the MUSE (Museo delle Scienze), the architectural work of archistar Renzo Piano; Rovereto with the MART (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) and the Italian Historical Museum of War; and San Michele all’Adige and the METS (Museo Etnografico Trentino), Ledro and the Museo delle Palafitte, to much more.
However, if you prefer to stay in Riva del Garda, perhaps hoping for the sun to peep through the clouds so you can resume your outdoor activities, here are some suggestions. I have put them together in an ideal pathway, which you can follow to the letter or choose the one you like or are most interested in.
Our route begins at the Church of the Inviolata, which is located at the north end of the pedestrian zone (Via Roma).
The Baroque church of the Inviolata is Riva’s most significant monument: built outside the walls in 1603 and consecrated in 1636 as a place of pilgrimage to guard a miraculous tabernacle. The exterior has a square floor plan, while inside the floor plan is octagonal with five altars, three doors, vaulted area with frescoes and stucco, carved wooden confessionals, and marble floors. Externally it appears very sober. In contrast, in its interior it presents the utmost splendor thanks to its pictorial decoration, the stuccoes by Davide Reti, the rich polychrome marble floor, and the precious wooden bas-reliefs in the choir. The altars contain altarpieces painted by Palma il Giovane (Jacopo Negretti) and one, the Crucifix with Magdalene, referable to the school of Guido Reni.
At the behest of Gian Angelo Gaudenzio Madruzzo, its greatest benefactor with his wife Alfonsina Gonzaga, a convent was added to the church. The Convent of the Inviolata was built between 1615 and 1616 to house the Girolamini Friars who were entrusted with the care of the shrine. The convent was inhabited for centuries, first by the Hierolaminian friars, then by the Franciscans. In 1870 it was purchased by the municipality of Riva and used as a girls’ public school, until it was abandoned in 1964. The structure is of special value and consists of three buildings with a central cloister. On the porticoed quadrangular cloister partitions it is still possible to observe 19 frescoed lunettes with scenes depicting episodes from the life of St. Jerome, painted in 1675 by Giovanni Antonio Italiani. These include a fresco depicting Blessed Pacifico Riccamboni, one of the leading figures in the spread of the Franciscan message on the shores north of Lake Garda, so much so that the foundation of the Minorite convents of Riva del Garda, Gargnano, and Malcesine are attributed to him.
The Convent, along with the wonderful cloister, has recently been restored and opened to the public. As part of the guided tours organized by the Museo Alto Garda, it is possible to visit the second floor of the structure and the cloister of the convent.
We leave the Church of the Inviolata, the convent and its cloister, and descend toward the lake, walking down Via Roma.
We pass through Porta San Michele, one of three (visible along Viale Dante, Riva del Garda’s shopping street) that marked the entrance to the ancient city.
Facing us is Piazza Cavour, sandwiched between Porta San Michele (which serves as the bell tower) and the side of the Archpriest’s Church of Santa Maria Assunta. To the east of the square, bordering the sacred building, is the Rectory, which rests on the site of the old one belonging to the primitive Pieve. The present rectory was rebuilt by Giancarlo Maroni soon after World War I (1919) because the previous one, like many other buildings in the city, had been damaged during the war. The Archpriest’s Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, currently a house of worship, was begun in 1728 by occupying part of the site plan of the ancient parish church, mentioned in the papers as early as 1186. The architect Cipriano Tacchi preserved, integrating it into the new construction, the 17th-century Suffrage Chapel, rich in valuable stucco and paintings due to Giuseppe Alberti (1640-1716), belonging to the old church, on whose altar towers the 15th-century wooden statue of the Madonna by the Veronese sculptor Antonio di Chiavica. The sacred building features a single nave punctuated by four chapels on each side. Notable are the altarpieces, two of which, the Assumption of Mary adorning the high altar and that of Our Lady of Sorrows, are by the brush of painter Giuseppe Craffonara (1790-1837).
In the adjacent Craffonara Square (on the south side) stood the ancient church (the Pieve), later destroyed. On the wall of the church overlooking the small square is the blazon of the Riccamboni family. Inside the church on the altar of St. Andrew (entering from the main entrance on the right), however, are the relics of Blessed Pacifico Riccamboni, the founder of the Riccamboni family. Palazzo Riccamboni, where you can stay for your vacation, is located right in front of the main facade of the Church.
Having finished our visit to the Archpriest’s Church, we descend further toward the lake along Via Mazzini.
In the square in front of us, with the lake in the background, the following stands out La Rocca. The Rocca is the castle of Riva del Garda, erected in the 12th century to defend the town center. This fortification of medieval layout has origins dating back to 1124. Over the centuries, however, it has undergone many transformations, the most radical in the mid-19th century, which gave it its present appearance. Because of its enchanting location it became during the Renaissance a pleasure residence, enhanced by gardens and airy frescoed rooms. With the advent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the fortress regained its military function. In 1852 it was converted by the Austrian government into a barracks and fortress as part of the project to strengthen the border between the Empire of Austria and Italy. The latest restorations brought to light some frescoes dating back to the Clesian period, as confirmed by the coat of arms of this Prince-Bishop that appears on the vault of a window surrounded by grotesques.
The fortress is home to the MAG, the Upper Garda Museum (President: Vittorio Sgarbi).
MAG collects fascinating evidence of Garda Trentino’s past, including stele statues dating back to the Copper Age found in Arco, some artifacts recovered from excavations at the Ledro pile dwellings, and artifacts found at the archaeological area of San Martino di Campi. The historical tour then continues to the twentieth century, tracing the tourist development of the Upper Garda and showing the events that marked the area between the two world wars. Next to the historical section, for those who love art, the Picture Gallery is interesting, with a collection of works showing the peculiarities of figurative production in the Garda area. Temporary exhibitions, which vary over time, complete MAG’s cultural offerings.
Currently, the museum is hosting the temporary photography exhibition “John Skulina. Fragments of instants” which will remain open until November 3, 2024.
The Park in front of the Fortress is always accessible, even outside Museum hours.
Leaving the MAG, we continue straight ahead or skirting the lake. We thus reach the square in which stands the Apponale Tower.
The Apponale Tower derives its name from the ancient Ponale port that stood in front of it. It is 34 meters high and bears on its top a metal angel figure, “l’anzolim de la tor,” which has become one of the symbols of Riva del Garda. Due to its strategic location, it was used to keep an eye on the harbor and later became a prison. In 1555 it was elevated and, in the early 1900s, its onion roof was removed and replaced with a four-sloped roof. Today the tower can be visited: from its top, which is reached by climbing 165 steps, there is an unparalleled view of the city center and Lake Garda.
On the square stands Praetorian Palace. It was built in the fourteenth century (1370) at the time of Scaliger rule. Its function was that of a tribunal, which was responsible for administering justice. In the loggia on which it stands, the Lodia Magna, that is, the grand loggia, justice was administered. In the early 19th century (1813), the building having partly collapsed and the loggia damaged, the ancient vault was demolished to replace it with a flat ceiling supported by four columns. Later, the original body of the palace was elevated and joined with the Municipal Palace. Until 1950, a fresco depicting a Madonna and Child was located under the loggia. In addition, restorations conducted in the 1980s unearthed fragments of zoomorphic frescoes.
Skirting the lake to the west, we head toward the Riva del Garda Hydroelectric Power Plant by crossing Piazza Catena.
Chain Square is so named because this is where the chain was secured that, starting from a rock at the back of the fortress and strengthening the defense already formed by the palada, i.e., by a series of poles driven into the bottom of the lake, was intended to prohibit entry to the harbor at night, either to enemies and suspicious vessels or in case of epidemics. It was raised or lowered by means of a winch according to circumstances and needs. For centuries and until the end of the 19th century, the port of Riva played a leading role in lake trade for all kinds of goods (wool, livestock, lumber, pottery, crockery, grain). It was highly articulated and subdivided according to the origin or destination of the vessels. In the square, where the old Customs House once stood, is a statue of St. John of Nepomuk dating back to 1753.
Just beyond the square, we find the majestic building of the Ponale Hydroelectric Power Station (otherwise known as the Riva del Garda hydroelectric power plant), one of the earliest and most impressive of its time. It stands and stretches at the foot of Mount Rocchetta, on the western Trentino shore of Lake Garda. It was built to a design by the Riva architect Giancarlo Maroni (the same one who designed the Spiaggia degli Ulivi, which is just across the street on the other side of the lake), who helped redesign much of the city’s spaces after World War I, while its technical part was entrusted to Eduardo Model and Francesco Tomazzoni of Rovereto. Work lasted from 1925 to 1929, when the power plant was inaugurated. On March 18, 1918, Gabriele D’Annunzio, the Vate, detonated the last mine to topple the rock diaphragm that separated the tunnel from the waters of Lake Ledro at a depth of 28 meters, thus conveying the water that, through the penstock and with a drop of 590 m., plunged into the turbines of the Ponale Power Station, considered at that time the largest in the world. The power plant, with its five distinct but interconnected bodies of buildings (each used for different purposes) on four different levels, re-proposes the architectural elements that characterize Maroni’s work:
- the round arches referencing the loggias of Gardesan architecture;
- the pillars reminiscent of the structure of lemon houses, one of which, belonging to the Moscardini family, had risen centuries earlier on that very spot;
- The gable adorning the masonry.
In the central part of the building’s facade, in a niche, stands-almost lending sacredness to the whole thing-a statue depicting the Genius of Water Numen Aquarum (also called the Neptune’s), made in 1931 by Silvio Zaniboni and surmounted by a tympanum in which the inaugural inscription of 1926 is inserted:
HIC OPUS HIC LABOR EST ET AEDIBUS IN MEDIIS NUMEN AQUARUM
If you look up, you see the Bastion, which dominates the ancient town of Riva. It was erected in 1508, the penultimate year of Venetian rule, on Mount Gazzo, on the slopes of Rocchetta, “for the defense of the land of Riva and its inhabitants.” When the city returned to the possession of the prince-bishop of Trent, Giorgio di Neideck, after the Battle of Agnadello (1509), he had his own coat of arms, still visible today, affixed to its walls, replacing the Venetian lion. In 1703 the Bastion, which never fulfilled its intended function, was undermined by General Vendôme during the War of the Spanish Succession. The keep, restored in 2006, is easily accessible on foot or by the new glass elevator. As you go up in the panoramic elevator, you can enjoy the fantastic and unparalleled view of the lake.
But today, it’s raining. Better to postpone the visit to a sunny day!