Rovereto

Rovereto stands in the Adige valley, on the route between northern Italy and the Alpine passes. A fortified town on the frontier between Venice and the prince-bishopric of Trent, it came under Venetian control in the early fifteenth century. In 1509 it passed to the Habsburg county of Tyrol as an outlying possession. During the sixteenth century the town expanded, and water channels served a growing trade in silk and textiles.

The wars of Revolutionary France reached Rovereto on 4 September 1796, when French forces defeated the Habsburg army in a battle near the town. Napoleon's campaigns brought further changes of rule: Rovereto passed to Bavaria and then to the Kingdom of Italy, before returning to Austria after the Congress of Vienna. Its castle and its position on the Adige corridor gave the town a military as well as commercial importance.