Scaligero Castle

The fortress takes its name from the Della Scala family of Verona, the Scaligeri, who ruled Verona and a large part of the Venetian territory from 1259 to 1387. Its chronology is told two ways: one account dates the start of work to around the middle of the 13th century, ordered by Leonardino della Scala — better known as Mastino della Scala — as podestà of Verona, probably over the remains of a Roman fortification, while another places the main construction in the latter half of the 14th century. Either way its purpose was the same: Sirmione sat in a frontier position, more exposed to attack, and the castle was built for defence and to control the port.

Roughly a century after the first works, the defences were enlarged: two courtyards were added, together with an independent fortification joined to the main castle by a barbican.

In 1405 Sirmione passed under the control of the Republic of Venice, after the Della Scala submitted to the Republic. The Venetians set about strengthening the defences, and it was in this period that the fortified dock visible today was built — a Scaliger dock, probably of timber, is thought to have stood there before it. The enclosed basin once sheltered the Scaliger fleet, and its internal docks are the only surviving example of a 14th-century fortified port.

Sirmione held its primacy as a defensive strongpoint until the 16th century, when the fortress at nearby Peschiera del Garda was completed and modernised. From then on the castle's military importance declined, though it continued in use as an armoury and fortification right up to the Unification of Italy.

After Unification the castle became the office of Sirmione's local government. Restoration began in 1919, after the First World War, when it opened as a museum and tourist attraction, but the work was not completed until 2018, when the internal waters of the castle were finally cleared. In 1980 the Italian Post Office put it on a 600-lire stamp in the "Castelli d'Italia" series, and in 2024 it was Italy's 29th most visited attraction, drawing 262,095 visitors.

Local legend tells of a young man named Ebengardo and his beloved Arice, whose life at the castle was ended one stormy night when a Venetian knight, Elalberto of the Feltre country, asked for shelter. Struck by Arice's beauty, the knight went to her chamber in the night; when she cried out in terror he stabbed her to death. Ebengardo ran to the room, found her lifeless, seized Elalberto's dagger and killed him. The story holds that on stormy nights Ebengardo's soul still wanders the castle, searching for Arice.