Sightseeing Tours in Austrian Verona

With the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Verona became part of Austrian possessions in Northern Italy.
Once again the position of Verona was making it strategically decisive so that it became the capital of Austrian territory in Italy, a fortress town controlling a strong defensive system spread all trhoughout the Veneto region.
In 1822 the representatives of European ruling countries, emperors and kings, met in town for the Congress of Verona.
In 1833, Austrian engineers and architects, led by Franz von Scholl re-design the look of Verona, creating an extraordinary system of walls, gates, fortresses. In strategic areas of Verona the Austrians built functional buildings such as the Military Hospital, the Arsenal and the Santa Marta, the huge neo-Gothic style bakery where the bread and victuallings for all the occupying soldiers were produced. On top of St. Peter's hill, the place where through the centuries the rulers of Verona built their fortresses, the Austrians erected a castle. Today it is almost completely hidden by the cypresses that were planted to cover the most evident sign of the Austrian domination after Verona became part of the Italian kingdom in 1866.
All these buildings can still be seen in Verona, astonishing the visitor for the beauty and elegance that the Austrians could put in them in spite of their military function. Vienna Architects drew inspiration from various styles of Verona, especially Romanesque and Gothic, using local materials and perfectly blending their works in the urban grid.

The guided sighseeing itinerary in Austrian Verona unfolds along the fortifications and buildings of the town even if it can be extended to the outskirts of Verona, especially the southern area of Lake Garda.
With a coach, riding a bicycle or on foot, the tourist guide will show you the city walls, showing how the Austrian interventions melted with previous Venetian structures. Along the way the Military Hospital can be admired in his imposing neo-classical style. Passing Fura gate the guided tour continues inside the Arsenal, with its original Neo-Romanesque style, the place where weapons and ammunitions for all the fortresses around Verona were made. From Verona Arsenal, the tour continues with Carli palace, the place where the Austrian field marshal Radetzky lived while he was the commander of the Longbard-Veneto, and today NATO headquarter in Verona. In Bra square Barbieri palace can be seen, a huge Neoclassical building which was the Austrian headquarter in Verona and, moving towards the right bank of the river Adige, St. Peter's castle imposing its profile over Verona.

This guided itinerary in the Austrian Verona, together with your tourist guide, can be modified and adapted focusing on particular aspects of the Austrian buildings like the Walls Park, the Torricelle , the fortified hillside of Verona with St. Mattia, St Sofia, St Leonardo fortresses, the left bank of the river Adige with Veronetta, the Austrian area in the ten years in which Verona remained splitted between Austrian and French, the monumental cemetery designed by the Neoclassical architect Barbieri, Campo di Marzio gate and the Neo-Gothic Santa Marta.
The Austrian itinerary in the outskirts of Verona can be structured in order to visit the fortresses in the outer circle: Gisella, Pastrengo, Ardietti and Peschiera.