Lake Loppio

From the Roman Empire to the present day, a place rich in historical and natural importance.

A biotope of great natural value and protected area, it is also an important archaeological site rich in history.

Lake Loppio with its small island of Sant’Andrea is an absolute protagonist on the passageway from the Adige valley to the Garda basin, and has been the setting of frequent trade exchanges since ancient times.

In the northern part of the island of Sant’Andrea, signs of ancient settlements with wooden huts dating back to the 5th-6th century AD have been found. Other masonry constructions gradually replaced the huts. There are also remains of a church (of Sant’Andrea) and its necropolis, built and abandoned before the 16th-17th centuries. Other finds include fragments of oriental and African amphorae and various coins, including rare fractions of Byzantine silver siliques.

In 1439 it was the setting for the ‘Galeas per Montes’, a memorable feat of military engineering performed by the Serenissima Republic of Venice, which sent a small fleet of boats through the lake, transporting the boats on wooden trunks from the Adriatic Sea to the Adige to Lake Garda.

On the western side is the small village of Loppio, with the 15th-century villa of the Castelbarco family and the nearby Chiesa del Nome di Maria with its tower still bearing the marks of artillery shells from the Great War.