Piazzale Arnaldo, piazza Tebaldo Brusato, Via Musei: monastic complex of San Salvatore - Santa Giulia and Museo della Città, Piazza del Foro, Via Cattaneo, Vicolo S. Clemente, Via Trieste, Via Tosio, Corso Magenta.

Piazzale Arnaldo was given this name in 1897 because of the central large bronze statue of Arnaldo from Brescia, sculpted by Odoardo Tabacchi in 1882, with a pedestal designed by Antonio Tagliaferri, dedicated to the monk who preached against the corruption of the clergy and was executed in 1155. In this square, in the 19th century, there once was the cereal market, and the Neoclassical building on its southern side is the Mercato dei Grani or Granarolo, one of the most beautiful works of its kind.

Near the traffic lights there are two small opposed porticoes: these are the two tollhouses built at the beginning of the 19th century to replace the demolished former Porta di Torrelunga, which marked the exit from the city towards Venice on the east.

With your back to Arnaldo's monument, at the end of the square, enter Piazza Tebaldo Brusato. Built at the end of 1173, the square housed important markets until the 17th century. In medieval times it witnessed strife and duels, as well as tournaments. In 1820 it was transformed into a public garden with large horse chestnuts that still exist today, and decorated with two Neoclassical fountains. The two squares called Arnaldo and Tebaldo Brusato mark the limit to the restricted traffic zone, and are full of life in the evenings with their numerous restaurants, cafés, and ice-cream parlours.

Among the historical buildings that surround the square, no. 35 is Palazzo Cigola: it is decorated in marble, and is one of the most imposing houses in Brescia built at the end of the 16th century and enlarged in the 18th century (the new façade and its majestic portal, the balcony above it with three windows; an attic characterised by crown pinnacles). No. 22, before leaving the square going north into Via Musei, is Palazzo Maggi.

Via dei Musei corresponds to the Decumanus Maximus in the Roman era, the main street which, about 5 metres under the current street level, marked the East-West line of the ancient village of Brixia, the same area that in the 1st century AD was enclosed by three kilometres of urban walls. It is surrounded by imposing buildings, among which the Capitolium - the most important Roman finding -, the Forum in front of it and the Roman theatre, which are among the most significant architectural remains in northern Italy.  In Via dei Musei the Longobards left one of the most famous and valuable testimonies of their people, namely the monastery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia.

The monastery lies on one of the richest archaeological sites of Brescia, where excavations found remains of settlements from the Iron Age, the Romans, and the Longobards. Inside the monastery you can see the remains of Roman domus, the early Medieval S. Salvatore church,

S. Giulia church, and the sacellum of S.Maria in Solario where the Treasure of S. Giulia is displayed. The Museo della Città is contiguous with the monastery and integrates with it; its exhibition area covers 12,000 square metres: it attracts to Brescia all art and history lovers with its over 11,000 findings which accompany the visitor from the prehistoric age to the Venetian era, through the Roman, the Longobard and Carolingian ages, all the way down to the age of Communes and Signories.

A booking centre is available for more information on opening hours and visits to all Civic Museums in Brescia. The centre is open Monday to Saturday, call +39.030.29778347, or +30.030.2977834.

If you walk along the southern side of Via Musei you will see the building of Santa Maria in Solario, the only façade of the Medieval sacellum that is not part of the monastic complex of San Salvatore-Santa Giulia. Its southern side is visible from the outside, and presents a thick wall decorated by pilaster strips and suspended arches surrounding commemorative stones with Latin inscriptions recovered from Roman buildings.

No. 81 in Via Musei is the Direzione dei Civici Musei, with Archivio fotografico and the library. Almost opposite it, no. 50 is Casa Benasaglio, recently restored with its beautiful wrought-iron gate; on the background of the court, beyond the two-arch portico, see the marvellous fountain designed by Vantini (1832) with a statue by Emanueli.

Following the external perimeter of the monastery turn right in Via Piamarta, the ancient road going uphill to the Castle, along which you will find the church of Santa Giulia. Its Renaissance influence is evident in two elements: the choir of the nuns from the second half of the 15th century, decorated with frescoes by Floriano Ferramola and Paolo da Caylina il Giovane at the beginning of the 16th century, and the barrel vaulted nave built at the end of the 16th century. The marble façade is divided in two architectural orders by a spiral frieze: on the top of the triangular tympanum there is the statue of Santa Giulia.

On the right there is the stair that leads to the church of Santissimo Corpo di Cristo, and the convent of Gesuati. Begun in 1501, it presents an interesting Renaissance marble portal and, in its interior and in the cloisters, the beautiful though almost faded frescoes from the 15th-16th centuries. See also the remarkable decorations of the chapels on the right hand side from the half of the 17th century by Benedetto Marone portraying scenes from the Holy Scriptures.
Walking downhill, on the right hand side, see the xenodochium from the 11th century, a hostel for travelling pilgrims, once managed by the Benedictine nuns of the adjacent convent.
Next to the xenodochium there is the alley of Fontanone, thus called because of the lavatory on its corner. No. 1 is Palazzo Maggi Gambara, built at the end of the 15th century on the ruins of the Roman theatre auditorium. The theatre was built under the Flavian dynasty (69-96 AD) in medolo stone, marble and bricks. Its imposing structure is believed to have hosted about 15,000 spectators. This is the heart of the Roman Brixia.

Out of Fontanone alley there is the archaeological site, whose current organisation was designed in 1830 and revised in 1939-43 with the restoring works for Tempio Capitolino, built in 73-74 AD by Vespasian, now hosting the Roman Museum. In the three cellars of the temple there is an important lapidary collection made of findings from Brescia and its province. The 19th century museum organisation has the charm of an ancient lapidary.

The Temple once bordered the Forum to the north, and was linked to the Decumanus - still partially visible today at the feet of the Temple - by a central staircase between two walls with blind arcades. The Forum, the civil and religious heart of Roman Brixia, was rectangular with its long side measuring 139 metres and the short one 40 metres. It was closed on the sides by a portico with two rows of columns that hosted shops; not much of it is visible today: the most evident trace is the 6.5 metre monolithic marble column, with Corinthian capital, on the eastern side of the square.  

In S. Clemente alley you enter in the heart of the Roman network of streets that, thanks to the recent restoring works funded by Brescia Municipality, show the positive outcome of the promotion of a quiet environment surrounding one of the most ancient residential areas in the city. In the square that bears the same name there is S. Clemente church. The building, which already existed here in the 11th century, was further modified in the 15th and 16th centuries, and radically transformed in its interior  in 1840 by architect Rodolfo Vantini. The church hosts numerous works by Moretto, who is buried here; in the second chapel on the right, there is a painting by Gerolamo Romanino recently restored (Christ resurrected with Santa Caterina and Sant'Agostino).

If you continue your walk along a series of medieval buildings, turn into Via Trieste, characterised by numerous antique shops and restorers' workshops. No. 17 is Palazzo Martinengo Cesaresco, which now hosts Università Cattolica and Istituto Arici. Its construction works started halfway through the 16th century under architect Ludovico Beretta. On its façade the imposing marble portal by Iacopo Medici stands out, surmounted by the crest of the Martinengo eagle; in the cellars you can visit what remains of mosaics and frescoes from a Roman Republican building (2nd-1st century BC), rebuilt in the 1st century AD and transformed in a spa room in the 3rd century.

No. 31 is a school that today occupies the cloister of S. Clemente, restored in the 17th century. At the intersection of Via Trieste with Via Veronica Gambara there is a wall erected by Brescia citizens for protection against Barbarian invasions, as tradition recounts.

No. 39 in Via Trieste is one of the most significant examples of Barocchetto style in Brescia: Palazzo Soardi, now Bruni-Conter, built around 1730 by the architect Antonio Turbino on a 15th century building. The desire to realise scenographic views comes true with the actual arrangement of the complex: from the lively façade with the festoons of the stone portal opens a telescopic view on the entrance hall, the inside porticoed court, the backyard garden enclosed by iron gates and three stone archways, up to the vanishing point to the south, opposite the palace, with the fountain by Antonio Callegari in a niche leaning on the side of the church, with the statue of Neptune.

Santa Maria Calchera lies in the square of the same name, and was almost completely rebuilt in the 18th century. On the inside it preserves, in the second chapel on the right, one of the best early works (from the second decade of the 16th century) by Romanino S.Apollonio Vescovo and comunicandisanti Faustino, Giovita, Afra, and Italico.

On the southern side of the church lies Casa Bisogni, now a meeting room, with frescoes from the 14th century. The monument to Niccolò Tartaglia, sculpted with Renaissance-like elegance and realism by Luigi Contratti, occupies the square since 1918, when it was donated by the Ateneo in honour of the great mathematician from Brescia of the 16th century.

No. 34 in Via Trieste is the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali e della Liuteria Bresciana (the Museum of musical instruments and Brescia lutherie).
Now turn into Via Tosio: no. 10-12-14 correspond to Palazzo Tosio, house of Ateneo di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, a prestigious academia in Brescia.

This building is the result of the aggregation of three contiguous houses. The façade as we see it today was designed by architect Vantini, who created here one of the most astounding neoclassical private buildings of his time.

In Via Tosio, no. 6 is Palazzo Marinengo da Barco, now Beretta, built in the 17th century on the esplanade of the ancient walls. From the entrance you can see, enclosed by a gate surmounted by statues, a courtyard and a garden that continues downhill towards a second gate in marble and wrought iron visible from Corso Magenta.

Now let's continue towards east in Corso Magenta. No. 27 is Palazzo Bargnani, built in the first half of the 16th century then connected with contiguous houses on a project by architect Rodolfo Vantini.

The next building is the music school Conservatorio "Luca Marenzio", formerly Scuola Tito Speri. It was designed by architect Luigi Donegani in 1837, using part of the ancient Augustinian monastery of San Barnaba. It has simple and essential lines in its central section, characterised by a tympanum supported by four Ionic columns. It is dedicated to the Risorgimento hero Tito Speri from Brescia.

On the same square there is the former church of San Barnaba, now an auditorium, with a Baroque marble façade from 1675. No. 50 is the entrance to the Salone da Cemmo, the ancient library of the Augustinian convent of San Barnaba, with a wooden coffered ceiling and a cycle of frescoes by Giovan Pietro da Cemmo from 1490.

In the contiguous gardens there are two monuments: one, Ala della Libertà by Quito Ghermanti, is dedicated to the heroes of Brescia 'Resistenza' (1970); the other, Gli Emigranti (1891), is a bronze group with a strong psychological impact by Domenico Guidoni.

No. 56 is Palazzo Poncarali, which now houses the Liceo Classico Arnaldo, built in the first half of the 17th century. In the cellar of this palace, just like in many other buildings in the surrounding area, ruins from the ancient Roman Brixia have been found.

As Via Magenta enters Piazzale Arnaldo, there is the church of Sant'Afra in Sant'Eufemia with an eclectic marble façade, built in 1776 on the foundations of a 1462 building, of which still remain the chancel and the crypt. It preserves in the first chapel on the left an important late work by Paolo Veronese: Martirio di Sant'Afra (circa 1575), with Santi Faustino e Giovita by Palma il Giovane on the side. The crypt is worth seeing, a three-nave room, with traces of 15th century frescoes and, over the altar, a Nativity scene from the same period.

Duration of the visit: half day. Duration of the visit: half day.
Information: Infopoint Turismo, tel. +39.030.2400357  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.