Torri del Benaco Lake Garda

TORRI DEL BENACO

Already inhabited in prehistoric times, Torri may correspond to the old Tulles, capital of the Tulliassi people. In olden days it was also called Castrium turrium, under roman domination it was an important centre thanks to its strategic position.

It then became the centre of the longobards and in the first years of the X cent.
Berengario 1, king of Italy found refuge here and ordered the contructon of the walls -in parts still visible- and the castle of which the tower facing the lake remains.

In the X cent. it was part of the county of Garda and so in 1193 passed to the Commune of Verona and then to the Scaligeri seigneurs, who in 1383 with Antonio della Scala had the castle rebuilt. The Torre dell’ Orologio by the parish church also dates back to the scaliger period.

After a brief interlude with the Visconti di Milano and the Carraresi di Padova, it came under the dominian of the Repbblica di Venezia, becoming headquarters of the Consiglio della Gardesana dall’Acqua, a federation of Communes of the veronese lake shores whose principal duties were fiscal and the supression of contraband. They assembled at the XV cent Palazzo della Gardesana and before every reunion they gathered for mass at the nearby church of SS. Trinity. This church dates back to the XIV cent., inside are XIV-XV century frescoes of merit.

The flourishing economy of Torri during the venetian period can be seen from some of the mansions like the Palazzo Marai-Mari in vicolo Cairoli and the houses that adom the port in particular the delightful Casa dei Vicari. Of special interest is the parish church built at the beginning of the XVIII cent. in sobre baroque style, inside noteworthy XVIII cent. altars by the trentini Cristoforo and Teodoro Benedetti, coeval altar-pieces by the artists Simone Brentana, Pietro Rotari and Felice Boscaratti; magnificient the organ built in 1742-44 by Giuseppe and Angelo Bonatti of Desenzano.

Credits:
Centro Studi Territorio Benacense
Prof. Giorgio Vedovelli