Built on the rubble of the church of Santa Maria di Capo di Bove starting from 1395 and completed in 1406 commissioned by Francesco I Gonzaga and designed by Bartolino da Novara, the castle of San Giorgio is a square-plan building made up of four corner towers and surrounded by a moat with three gates and relative drawbridges, aimed at defending the city.
The architect Luca Fancelli, in 1459 on the recommendation of the Marquis Ludovico II Gonzaga, who freed rooms of the Corte Vecchia for the Council called by Pius II, renovated the castle which definitively lost its original military and defensive function. The manor was for many years the residence of Isabella d'Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, one of the most famous noblewomen of the Renaissance. Isabella wanted numerous artists and humanists of the time at her court, such as Andrea Mantegna, Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Ludovico Ariosto and Baldassarre Castiglione, making Mantua one of the major European courts and an artistic and literary centre. The leader Paolo Vitelli, taken prisoner by Francesco II Gonzaga, was locked up in the prisons of the castle in 1496.
Next to the castle and connected to it with a corridor, the Palazzina della Paleologa was built in 1531 based on a design by Giulio Romano, demolished in 1899.
The castle, together with other adjacent buildings, remained the prince's residence for about a century, until Guglielmo Gonzaga moved his apartments to the renovated Corte Vecchia.
In 1810, the Tyrolean patriot Andreas Hofer was locked up in the manor's prison before being executed. Starting from 1815 with the Austrian occupation of the city, the castle became the maximum security prison where opponents were locked up. Since 1852 the Martyrs of Belfiore and some patriots linked to them (Ciro Menotti, Teresa Arrivabene) were locked up in the castle.
Albert Anker, Castle of San Giorgio in Mantua with the Palazzina della Paleologa, 1891.
The 2012 Emilia earthquake caused structural damage to the building.
[Wikipedia]