Ducal Palace, Mantua
In 1519, Isabella d'Este moved her residence from the Castle of St. George to this older sector of the Gonzaga palace, in the so-called "Widow Apartment".
Later Guglielmo X Gonzaga, in the 16th century, transformed the rooms of the Corte Vecchia creating the Refectory, facing the Hanging Garden, and the Sala dello Specchio ("Hall of the Mirror"), used for music.
After decorating the Palatine church of St. Barbara and a period in the Ducal Palace's stores, the Flemish tapestries were restored in 1799 and placed in the current location.
The Castle of St. George (Castello di San Giorgio) was built from 1395 and finished in 1406 under commission by Francesco I Gonzaga, designed by Bartolino da Novara, one of the most renowned military architects of the time.
In 1459 architect Luca Fancelli, commissioned by marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga, who assigned several rooms of the Corte Vecchia for the Council of Mantua called by Pope Pius II, restored the castle, which definitely lost its military and defensive function.
The painter's decoration creates an illusionistic space, as if the chamber was a loggia with three openings facing country landscapes among arcades and curtains.
The gallery leads to the huge Sala degli Arcieri ("Room of the Archers"), the site of Duke Vincenzo's original apartment.
In 1979, however, Italian art historian Renato Berzaghi convincingly demonstrated that these tiny rooms are instead an exact reproduction of an ancient Roman original: the Scala Santa ("Holy Stairway") of St. John Lateran in Rome, and were intended for devotional purposes.
[citation needed] The main feature of the Corte Nuova ("New Court") is the Sala di Manto, once the entrance to the "Apartment of Troy", which takes its name from the frescoes (1538–39) by collaborators of Giulio Romano, commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga to restore several rooms in the Palace.
The current appearance of the Sala del Manto dates to the intervention of Guglielmo X, who ordered the creation of the Appartamento Grande di Castello ("Large Apartment of the Castle").
The church of Santa Barbara, which had the role of Palace chapel ("Basilica Palatina") for the Gonzagas, was built in 1562–72 by Giovanni Battista Bertani, commissioned by Duke Guglielmo.
The interior contains two lateral altars, surmounted by large canvas altarpieces by Lorenzo Costa the younger, depicting The Baptism of Emperor Costantine and the Martyrdom of Sant’Adrian.
