Goito

Goito (Gùit in Eastern Lombard dialect) is a comune of Lombardy, northern Italy, part of the Province of Mantua, from which it is some 20 kilometres (12 mi), on the road to Brescia. It is on the right bank of the Mincio River near the bridge. The town is part of the region known as Alto Mantovano (Upper Mantua).

History

It was founded as a Roman colony in the early 2nd century BC as a defensive outpost on the Mincio crossing along the Via Postumia from Cremona to Verona. In the late 5th century AD, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it become a fortress of the Ostrogoths, from whom the current name perhaps derives. Later it was conquered by the Lombards and the Franks.

In the later Middle Ages it was held by the Canossa family as part of the Holy Roman Empire, and then it established itself as a free commune. In the 15th century Goito was contended between the Visconti and Gonzaga families, until, after a battle fought on 14 June 1453, it became a possession of marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga. He built here a residence (in which the painter Andrea Mantegna worked in 1463–64), restored the fortifications and built the Naviglio di Goito canal, and died here by plague in 1478. Goito maintained its prosperity under dukes Guglielmo and Vincenzo I Gonzaga.