TORRI DEL BENACO

The tourist resort is on the eastern lake shore, in a place known as olive Riviera, in the exact point where the lake start to be narrower. Behind the inhabited part of the town, hill formations stretch itself and prepare the long Baldo mountain chain. In the front of Torri , on the opposite shore, in the lake, stretch itself the Maderno-Toscolano promontory; this place is connected to Maderno by regular shipping services with give occasion to bring cars, avoiding the long and irregular along the lake way. From the panoramic lake front, the sight goes on the western gardesana and particularly on Gardone Riviera and on Salo gulf which has on the front the beautiful Garda island.

First human settlement in Torri place date back to the pilework period while already in Roman age we have news of a place called Castrum Turrium, which was and important reference for trades travelling over the Via Claudia Augusta, northward. It was remembered in the so called " tavola di cles" as capital of the Tuliassi people.
It was under garda control, under German sovereigns, and welcomed in high medieval age Berengario I.

It became then a Scaliger possession, then gathered with Venetian territories, and the seat of the captained of the lake,
sharing with Malcesine, then from the IX cent., important administrative peculiarities on the entire western gardesan territory. Nowadays Torri is an appreciated and qualified tourist and residential resort, provided with well organised accommodations, sport and free time facilities. During the season its little harbour is really full of recreation ships, while the neighbourhood invite to pleasure tours in a surrounding rich in significant pre history finds, marked by interesting rupestrian engravings.

The Castle, characterised by the ghibelline merlon, arise in a wonderful area in front of the lake. In this place there were already roman buildings which interested also the close harbour area; at the end of the IX cent, Berengario started the restoring of the defensive tower order, enlarging the enclosing walls. During the medieval period the castle gave hospitality to the so called " Gardesana dell'acqua" magistracy and was further reinforced by the Scaligeri who erected the two addicted tower beside the roman ones, that can be seen today, if in a position dominating the dock. The ancient little town core presents ancient dwellings such as Eccheli palace(XV cent.) the so called Berengario Tower, a squared medieval building that rose on an already occupied by an ancient church ruins area. The parish has already been mentioned in XII cent. and second half of the XV cent. and documents and was dedicated to S.S. Pietro and Paolo.

The present church was finished in the first half of the XVIII cent. on a Antonio Spiazzi architect design, already working in Salò. The front of the building presents niches with sculptures; the superior part is crowned by a triangular tympanum. The tower bell rests on the tower foundations of an ancient defensive system prepared by Barengario.

In Calderini square an ancient fifteenth century palace is present, it was already the seat of the Captained, and is today used as an hotel. On the same square appears the Caduti Church, a XIV cent. building, enhanced with some fresco paintings in a good preserved condition. Little out of the inhabited , near to the graveyard, there is the S. Giovanni church whose origin seems to date back to the Romanesque period. It was revised in the XVII cent. and still keeps inside some parts of fine fresco fourteenth cent. paintings, that people gives to Giovanni da Baldolino, together with one XV cent. fresco which was probably made by Morone. S. Antonio church, of the XIV cent. has undergone a restoring and an enlarging during the second half of the XVII cent. A well done fresco represents a sight of Torri del Benaco XVII cent. while other fresco paintings can be referred to a period between XV-XVII cent.

S.S. Faustino and Giovita church was already mentioned in XV cent. documents, but its origin probably are far former. The inside keeps fifteenth cent. frescos representing the Virgin with the baby and the S.S. Rocco and Sebastiano, and the grave of Pietro Malerba who lived in the XV cen. Pai and Albisano hamlet at least deserve our attention. In the former we can see interesting churches as San Marco and the old parish S. Gregorio church. The new parish is of the XVI cent. and arose from a chapel of the ancient castle.

Albisano is instead a pretty hilly place which takes all advantages of an enviable geographic location. It is surely one of the most beautiful, frequented and appreciated terrace with a view places of the verona gardesan. Here we find the ancient S. Martino church, already mentioned till the XIII cent., more than one time changed by reworking and the Parish which can be dated back to the XVIII cent.