Garda

Garda extends along Veronese coast of Garda Lake, formerly known as Benàcus or Benàco. The town stands in the center of homonymous gulf, which in part extends to form a small peninsula, which includes Punta San Vigilio and Baia delle Sirene. Parish church of Garda is one of the oldest in the area, because in the tenth century it already had a chapter of canons making common life. Of ancient Medieval construction of parish church there are traces of walls in the bell tower and in the cloister. Among other buildings of worship, Eremo dei Camaldolesi (XV century), Church of S. Stefano (seventeenth century), Church of Santa Maria Assunta (eighteenth century). Other historic buildings include Palazzo dei Capitani (14th century) and Palazzo Cesare Fregoso (16th century); Villa degli Albertini (XVI century) and Villa Canossa (18th century). On Punta San Vigilio, a small prominence on the lake, there are a villa, a small church, historic inn and a small harbor. San Vigilio has always been a destination for illustrious visitors, including the king of Naples, the emperor Alexander of Russia, Nobel Prize Otto Hahn and his wife, the painter Edith Junghans, Winston Churchill, the actors Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Prince Charles of England. In July, "Riviera Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh" Prize is dedicated to the two great actors who stayed here in the 50s; Garda is also a stage of Regata delle Bisse, organized by Lega Bisse del Garda, the organizer of traditional Assumption Palio, where the districts of the country compete.