Asola

Asola stands on the Lombard plain near a bend of the Chiese River, from which its name may derive. Its fortress placed the town among the contested borderlands between Brescia, Mantua and Venice. In 1440 Asola chose to submit to the Venetian Republic and became an important stronghold of its mainland frontier.

Before its submission to Venice, Asola had passed among the Visconti, Malatesta and Gonzaga. In 1516 the forces of Emperor Maximilian I besieged Asola but failed to take it. The siege later became the subject of a painting by Tintoretto. The town remained under Venetian authority until the arrival of Napoleon's forces in 1797. After the French period it passed under Austrian rule, linking its subsequent history to the lands around Mantua.