Villa Lagarina

Founded near the ancient Pieve di Valle, on the right bank of the Adige river, Villa Lagarina today is an important agricultural and industrial centre. However, it has managed to preserve its character as a Trentino medieval town with its sumptuous palazzos of noble families, its vast parks and rich churches. The central square, Piazza Riolfatti, with its majestic fountain/wash-tub surrounded by a double row of horse chestnut trees, is joined by Via Cavolavilla along which stands Palazzo Guerrieri Gonzaga, built around the mid 17th century for the counts de Festi of Braunsfeld.
Absolutely worth a visit are the Assunta church, one of Trentino's most beautiful Baroque monuments, Palazzo Libera, seat to the Diocesan Museum as well as cultural centre and Palazzo Camelli, now City hall. In Piazzo, a hamlet, visit the small church of Santa Apollonia and the large spinning mill with its typical and imposing structure and in Castellano the castle and the church of San Lorenzo (18th century). From there one reaches the Strafalt waterfalls with their caverns and traces of ancient structures: a mill and the arch of a bridge, possibly Roman. Above Castellano, the romantic Lake Cei, set among beech forests.