Villa Lagarina
Villa Lagarina is a municipality in the Vallagarina, in Trentino, set on the right bank of the Adige a few kilometres north of Rov...
Updated 20 July 2026
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The story
The story of Villa Lagarina
Villa Lagarina in the Vallagarina, Facing Rovereto
Villa Lagarina lies in the Vallagarina, the valley carved by the Adige river between Trento and Rovereto, on the right bank of the river, a few kilometres north of the town of Rovereto and just over twenty kilometres south of the provincial capital. The village stands at about 180 metres above sea level, on the fertile valley floor at the foot of the hills that separate the Vallagarina from the Cei basin, while facing it, on the opposite bank of the Adige, rises the town of Rovereto with the slopes of Monte Zugna. The municipal territory, home to nearly four thousand people, includes besides the main town the hamlets of Castellano, Pedersano, Piazzo and Sasso, spread between the vine-covered plain and the first hillside terraces. This hinge position, along the historic route that follows the Adige toward central Trentino, made Villa Lagarina for centuries an administrative reference point for the entire right bank of the Adige in the Vallagarina.
Palazzo Libera and the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta
The best-known monument in Villa Lagarina is Palazzo Libera, a noble building erected in the mid-17th century by the Gasperini family of Monte Vineato and later passed to the Libera family, which during the Great War saw it turned into an Austrian military hospital. In the palazzo, on via Garibaldi, the architect Adalberto Libera was born in 1903, a major figure of 20th-century Italian architecture, commemorated on the ground floor in the Stanza Libera and in the garden by an early sculpture of his, La Madre. Since 2000 the building has housed a branch of the Museo Diocesano Tridentino, gathering furnishings and sacred artworks from the nearby collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta, the parish church dominating the historic centre. Of medieval origin, first attested in 1188 as the pieve of the right bank of the Adige, the collegiate church was rebuilt in Baroque style in the mid-17th century, commissioned by the Lodron family from architect Santino Solari, who unified its three naves into one, later enriched with 18th-century altars, stuccoes and frescoes.
The Counts of Lodron and the History of the Fief
The history of Villa Lagarina is bound to the counts of Lodron, who in 1456 forcibly took from the Castelbarco family the castles of Castellano and Castelnuovo-Noarna, giving rise to the fief of Castellano and Castelnuovo, extending across much of the right bank of the Adige. The seat of the fief, initially in the castle of Castellano, moved to Villa Lagarina during the 16th century and then, in the 17th century, to the Lodron palazzo in Nogaredo; the Lodron family retained jurisdiction over the territory until 1842, when they renounced it. To the same family belonged Paride Lodron, born in the castle of Castellano, who became Archbishop and Prince of Salzburg in the 17th century and financed the chapel of San Ruperto next to the collegiate church, built in memory of his parents Nicolò Lodron and Dorotea Welsperg. Among the finest examples of Mannerism in Trentino, the chapel, built between 1626 and 1629 to a design by Santino Solari, houses twenty-one paintings on copper by the Florentine painter Arsenio Mascagni, within an octagonal structure topped by a dome on a tall drum.
Marzemino and the Wine-Growing Landscape
Villa Lagarina is one of the Vallagarina municipalities where Marzemino is grown, a red grape variety that finds one of its finest terroirs on the right bank of the Adige, alongside the neighbouring municipalities of Isera, Volano, Nogaredo, Pomarolo, Nomi, Calliano, Besenello, Mori, Ala, Aldeno, Avio and Rovereto. The vineyards spread across basaltic highlands and alluvial fans rising toward the first hills, in a landscape that alternates rows of vines with orchards and woods. The resulting wine, often marketed as Trentino Marzemino or Marzemino Superiore, stands out for its deep ruby colour, soft drinkability and a characteristic aroma that local tradition links to the soil composition, rich in tuff and basalt. Alongside viticulture, the agricultural economy of Villa Lagarina in the past also included mulberry cultivation and silkworm breeding, activities that between the 18th and 19th centuries flanked wine production before declining; today the rural landscape remains marked above all by the vineyards lining the roads between the main town and the hillside hamlets.
Hamlets, Castles and Experiences
The hamlets of Villa Lagarina each offer a stop for exploring the territory: Pedersano, along the road climbing toward the plateau, keeps a compact rural layout gathered around its parish church, while beyond the village the road continues in hairpin bends toward the Castellano plain, passing the chapel of Madonna dei Zengi. At 789 metres above sea level, Castellano was one of the main centres of the Lodron fief: its castle, originally a possession of the Prince-Bishopric of Trento, passed to the Lodron family in 1456, who turned it into a frescoed residence, and from here it overlooks the whole Vallagarina down to the course of the Adige. In the main town, the 18th-century Palazzo Guerrieri Gonzaga preserves an English-style garden with rare tree specimens, open for visits and events. Among the events that mark the year in Villa Lagarina are the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August and the traditional watermelon festival in July, occasions when the village combines community life, local food and a rediscovery of its agricultural roots.
Not to be missed
- Palazzo Libera, home to the Museo Diocesano Tridentino and birthplace of Adalberto Libera
- The collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta and the Mannerist San Ruperto chapel
- Marzemino wine tasting at a right-bank Adige winery
- Castello di Castellano, the former residence of the counts of Lodron
- The English-style garden of Palazzo Guerrieri Gonzaga
To see
What to see in Villa Lagarina
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