Borghetto

One of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy

Built on the banks of the Mincio River, in a valley surrounded by moraine hills and just a short distance from the town center, Borghetto is certainly the most renowned hamlet of Valeggio sul Mincio for several reasons—historical, scenic, and monumental—making this place so interesting that it recently earned inclusion in the Club of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy.
This small village, born in symbiosis with the Mincio River and characterized by ancient fortifications dating back to the medieval period, owes its charm to the harmonious relationship that history and nature have preserved almost intact over the centuries. Today, it represents a unique urban setting to be visited at least once in a lifetime.
The oldest center of the hamlet still preserves its characteristic appearance of a “medieval village,” emphasized by the presence of the bell tower, the water mill wheels (once used for grinding wheat and cereals), and the ramparts of the Ponte Visconteo, an extraordinary fortified dam built in 1393 by the order of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, with the purpose of ensuring the impregnability of the eastern borders of the duchy.
Stretching 650 meters in length and approximately 25 meters in width, with the road level 9 meters above the river’s surface, the “Ponte Lungo” (as it is commonly called by the locals) connects to the overlying Scaliger Castle through two high crenellated curtains and is integrated into a fortified complex called the “Serraglio,” which, in its time, extended for about 16 kilometers to the plains of Nogarole Rocca.
The dramatic presence of the Ponte Visconteo and the Scaliger Castle, along with the pleasant natural surroundings and historically significant sites, undoubtedly make Borghetto a popular tourist destination. Along the banks of the Mincio, you can spend pleasant days immersed in the peace and tranquility of its quiet streets, visiting the small Church of San Marco Evangelista (18th century), built on the remains of an earlier Romanesque parish from the 11th century. You can also observe the mysterious statue of St. John Nepomuk, tradition holds that it protects those who fall into the river’s waters from drowning.