Polpenazze is a delightful village in the province of Brescia in the heart of Valtenesi, a few kilometers from Puegnago and Manerba on Lake Garda.

The origins of Polpenazze are very ancient. There is evidence of the existence of the first human settlements since the Bronze Age. In fact, pile-dwelling remains have been found in the drained lake of Lucone. The lake, located between the hills of Cassaga, Brassina and San Pietro, was drained between the 1400s and the 1700s. These places were succeeded by the Celts, perhaps the Etruscans, and finally the Romans, as evidenced by the small tower of Bottenago and the church of San Pietro in Lucone, where in the 1960s fragments of a sacred building from the barbarian era were found. Among the illustrious people of Polpenazze is Luigi Filippini (d. 1744), a physician and descendant of a Valsabbia family who had opened a waxworks in the village and was the inventor of an ointment against cancer. Still in the 1800s, the Filippini family distinguished itself in the wars of the Risorgimento (Giovanni was a veterinary major in San Martino), and in World War I (his son Arnaldo reached the rank of division general).

At the Castle of Polpenazze

Rising at the time of the Hungarian invasions in the early 15th century, the Castle of Polpenazze was destroyed by the Visconti. In 1426 the Serenissima allowed Polpenazze to rebuild it. At the end of the 1500s, the southern part of the walls was torn down to make room for the new parish church. Now only the entrance remains of the castle.

In the 1500s a tower was converted into a bell tower. Also surviving is a section of wall in which a creek bay can be distinguished. In its present state, the castle continues to be part of the life of the Polpenazze community, housing today the library, the town offices and the church.