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A town of SE Veneto: 45°04N, 11°47E. Altitude: 5 m. Population in 2003: 50,400. |
Piazza Garibaldi: the leader's statue. |
The provincial capital of Rovigo is a small town in the lower plain of the Po, just 10 km N of the river and 40 km from the Adriatic Sea. It is 35 km NE of Ferrara and 80 km SW of Venice. For over 500 years the city has been in the orbit of Venice (for details, at least from the Venetian point of view, see this page at Virtual History of Venice), and by now has become quite proud of it: one of Rovigo's most visible monuments is a column with the Lion of St. Mark.
Rovigo is a pleasant, open place with attractive public spaces, squares, and gardens; a good part of the downtown area has been made a pedestrian zone. There is of course no shortage of churches, the best of which is the curious but attractive Madonna del Soccorso (early 17c), usually called the Tempio della Rotonda: set in a large park, it's an octagonal porticoed structure dwarfed by its 57 m-tall belfry; the interior of the church is lavishly decorated in the Baroque style.
Among the other main sights of the town, the Palazzo Roncali and the Palazzo dell' Accademia dei Concordi: home to important libraries and a museum housing works by Venetian painters.
While the castle of Rovigo no longer exists, two of its towers have survived: one of them, the Torre Donà, is one of the tallest medieval towers of Italy. Both lean perilously in a wisely planned public park.
A proper website will eventually appear here, since I've been to Rovigo: although the site will be small since my visit was very brief. In the meanwhile, you will probably find it useful to read the the article Rovigo (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911) and the May 17, 2004 entry of my diary: each page also includes another photo. For more complete summary information, see the sites in the navigation bar at the bottom of this page.
Like most of the comuni in Italy, Rovigo includes in its territory some smaller towns and hamlets, of a few hundred inhabitants if that, with a certain administrative identity of their own: as elsewhere in Italy, these are referred to as the frazioni of the comune (singular: frazione, literally a "fraction"): a list of them follows, which I believe is complete. I haven't been to any of them yet, so any links will be offsite.
Boara Polesine • Borsea • Buso • Concadirame • Fenil del Turco • Granzette • Grignano Polesine • Mardimago • Roverdicrè • S. Apollinare • Sarzano
Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.) |
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A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information. |
Page updated: 3 Dec 17