Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace), called “a city in the shape of a palace”, is impressive in its opulence and splendor. It has 500 rooms and 13 inner courtyards and gardens. It was chosen by the Gonzaga rulers of Mantua and remained their residence for 400 years. After them, Austrian and French rulers lived here. Each left traces of their stay. It was home to one of the most active and lively courts of the Renaissance, led by such major patrons of the arts as the learned Louis II Gonzaga, the “Grande dame of the Renaissance” Isabella D’Este, and the Juir Vincenzo I Gonzaga.
They liked to surround themselves with major artists, sculptors and architects, philosophers and composers, thus turning little Mantua into a major political and cultural center. Among the wonders of this beautiful palace are the hall painted by Pisanello, the unsurpassed master of painting, in the late Gothic style, the Hall of Mirrors, where the opera of the great court composer Cla. Monteverdi’s Orpheus and Eurydice, the Marriage Bedroom, an undoubted masterpiece of Italian pictorial art, housing the portrait of the Gonzaga family, an exceptional example of lower perspective, and numerous beautifully painted details. Tapestries made for the Sistine Chapel, based on Raphael’s cartons, a hanging garden and much, much more.
