The Rovigo City Center is a lively and good-looking city located in the heart of Polesine, it is an important agricultural and industrial center in continuous development, and represents for a lot of people a cultural and environmental discovery.
The gentle sea breeze that comes from the nearby Po Delta river will pamper you. Moreover, the simplicity of human relationships, the frankness of the local dialect and the passion for opera and rugby are a treat for even the most selective travelers.
By Visiting the city centre you will understand the early Middle Ages symbolized by the Donà Tower (on the left), one of the tallest Italian medieval towers, located in the public gardens of Matteotti square together with Mozza Tower (on the right), which is the only remaining memory of the castle that stood in this garden and was built by the bishop Paolo Cattaneo in the 1920.
Rovigo is capital of Polesine, is a meeting point of the Venetian and Ferrara civilizations, as shown in the buildings with porticoes that surround the natural center of Vittorio Emanuele II square. There are few historical artifacts that can guide us to an exact reconstruction of the history of Rovigo. In fact, certain acquaintances are safe in the area of ancient people from Veneto and later also from the Romans.
The first reliable historical document on the city narrates the presence in 833 of a fortified village called Rhodigium, built by the bishop of Adria, Paolo Cattaneo, on the right bank of the river Adige, which was an important transit route for river and land trade for the most important cities of northern Italy towards the Adriatic Sea.
In the twelfth century, the Estensi family took the reins of the city by the previous episcopal government, and began the expansion and fortification of the village, which began to assume a clearer and more defined urban structure. The village extended already on both sides of the Adigetto, which at the time was not a canal but a real river.
With the Estensi dominion, which lasted almost three centuries, Rovigo became the capital of Polesine, thanks to the progressive flourishing of religious and civil buildings, which brought churches, hospitals and noble palaces. In the fifteenth century the entire territory of Polesine and the same Rovigo were tormented by the Republic of Venice, which began at that time to expand to the mainland and, during Salt War, it finally entered the territory.
Venice built the Maggiore Square, the current Vittorio Emanuele II Square, the Civic Tower, and the column with the Lion of San Marco to seal its authenticity. Between 1797 and 1866 they were subject to French and Austrian dominations, which contributed to the demolition of the walls. In the Fascist era, with the Master Plan of 1938, it was decided to earth up the Adigetto canal and alter the physiognomy of the ancient fluvial city.
