Palazzo Ducale, Renaissance palace and castle in Revere, Italy

Palazzo Ducale is a brick building with two side towers and blind crenellation, built around a U-shaped courtyard with a portico on three sides. The entrance portal by Luca Fancelli has fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals supporting an architrave and tympanum. A marble well stands in the centre of the courtyard, and the Museo del Po is housed inside.

A castle existed here from 1125, built by the Modenese and contested by Modena, Reggio and Mantua until Revere passed to the Gonzaga in 1332. Between 1447 and 1478 Ludovico III Gonzaga had Luca Fancelli transform it into a residence; Fancelli's portal with fluted pilasters and Corinthian capitals survives. It hosted Pope Pius II in 1459, and Ferdinando Carlo, last duke of Mantua, was born here on 31 August 1652. After the Gonzaga fell in 1707 it passed to the Habsburgs, then the French until 1814, then Austria.

The palace now houses the Museo del Po, devoted to the river that shaped Revere's fortunes. In front of it stands the 12th-century bell tower, the last of a chain of fortified towers, whose bells ring for solemn ceremonies and the town's patron saint.

The palace now houses the Museo del Po, and the building belongs to the municipality of Borgo Mantovano. The entrance portico and inner courtyard with its marble well can be visited; the bell tower opposite, 36 metres tall, is also a tourist stop. Check locally which rooms are open.

Its location at a bend of the Po River was strategically valuable and allowed the family to control traffic and power over the region. This position remains visible today and shapes how the building relates to the landscape around it.