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Ducal Palace of Mantua

The Gonzaga's 500-room palace city, home to Mantegna's illusionistic Camera degli Sposi.

  • Mantua
  • Palace
Plan your visit
Where
Mantua
Best for
Gonzaga city-palace of 500 rooms
Allow
2 hr 30 min
Tickets
From €15
Checked September 2026

The Gonzaga dukes ruled Mantua from a palace complex so vast, some five hundred rooms linked by courtyards and gardens between the town's three lakes, that it amounts to a small city.

Its single most famous room is the Camera degli Sposi in the Castello di San Giorgio, which Andrea Mantegna painted between 1465 and 1474 for Duke Ludovico Gonzaga: the painted court gazes out from every wall, and overhead an oculus opens onto a painted sky ringed with cherubs and a servant girl leaning over the balustrade, one of the earliest tricks of illusionistic perspective in Renaissance art. Beyond it lie apartments most visitors never reach, including the tiny Appartamento dei Nani, built to the scale of the Gonzaga court's dwarfs.

Five works worth finding

If you see nothing else, see these.

  1. The Camera degli SposiAndrea Mantegna, 1465-1474

    The Gonzaga court painted on the walls, with an illusionistic oculus open to a painted sky above.Castello di San Giorgio

  2. Pisanello’s Arthurian frescoesPisanello, 1433-1437

    Tournament and chivalric scenes hidden until the 1960s.Corte Vecchia

  3. The Appartamento dei NaniGonzaga court

    Rooms built to the scale of the court’s dwarfs.Palace complex

  4. The Raphael tapestriesFlemish weavers after Raphael’s designs

    Nine tapestries made from Raphael’s original cartoon designs.Tapestry apartment

  5. The Hanging GardenPalace gardens

    A garden suspended about 12 meters above ground.Above the ground

Plan your visit

Everything you need before you go.

Tickets
From €15
Booking
Book ahead
Time needed
2 hr 30 min
Best time
Book the first morning slot for the Camera degli Sposi, before tour groups arrive.
Getting there
The palace sits on Piazza Sordello in Mantua's historic center, a fifteen-minute walk from the train station. The center is largely pedestrian, so park at one of the paid lots ringing the old town and walk in.

€15 full price for the complex including the Camera degli Sposi (booking for the room is compulsory and carries a small fee); a combined ticket that adds the separate Archaeological Museum costs more. Free the first Sunday of the month (optional €1 booking fee). Last updated September 2026. Prices change, so check the official site before you go.

Ask at the ticket desk about the Sala dello Zodiaco and the Galleria dei Mesi, two rooms most guidebooks skip that stay nearly empty even when the Camera degli Sposi is booked solid.

Get directionsGoogle MapsApple Maps

Before you book

How long should you spend at the Ducal Palace of Mantua?

Plan two and a half hours for the highlights. The palace has some five hundred rooms, so choose your priorities.

Do you need to book the Camera degli Sposi?

Yes. Entry to the Camera degli Sposi is by timed slot, and it is worth booking the first morning slot before the tour groups arrive.

Can you see the Ducal Palace and Palazzo Te in one day?

Yes. Mantua is compact, so the palace in the morning and Palazzo Te in the afternoon is a classic day.

More to see nearby

Same city first, then the nearest across the region.

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