Garda Region Multisensory Park Highlights Archaeology, Heritage, and Tourism

Prehistory, Roman-Medieval periods, religiosity, historic centers, natural environment, enogastronomy: these are the key themes around which the hypothesis of a multisensory park may be outlined, spanning the areas of Garda, Bardolino, Cavaion Veronese, Costermano, and Torri del Benaco. The delineation of these aspects was discussed during a meeting held at the Garda municipality, where Gian Pietro Brogiolo, the archaeologist leading excavations at the Rocca and nearby areas within the Adelaide ’99 project, explained that the project is funded by the municipalities of Garda and Bardolino, as well as the provincial administration. Among the strategic goals of the plan proposed by the archaeologist is the enhancement of the Rocca Vecchia, the site of the castle where over a thousand years ago Adelaide of Burgundy was imprisoned—the future empress alongside Otto I. Excavations on the Rocca hill have uncovered substantial traces of the ancient fortress. Now, restoration of the most significant portions of the walls could be considered, along with designing a specific archaeological route and a related multisensory path.

Activities and routes in the territory

Additional itineraries could extend through the lands surrounding the Rocca, highlighting also the rock carvings on the Venetian shore of Lake Garda, the ruins of Roman-era villas, castles, and museums. Multimediality could also be integrated, with the creation of three-dimensional computer models of villas and manor houses, or reconstructions of past environments. The entire effort would involve local entities and associations, considering the on-site training of tourism and cultural operators, with the aim of possibly forming a cooperative of services.

“What Professor Brogiolo envisions,” emphasizes Mayor Giorgio Comencini, “is an innovative, modern park that, if realized, could beautify the cultural value of the Adelaide project from a tourism perspective.” Such a park would aim to attract cultural tourism itself—a niche tourism, perhaps, in terms of quantity, but definitely interesting from a qualitative standpoint.

This idea has caught the interest of Marco Zaninelli, commissioner of the Riviera degli Olivi tourist promotion company, and Alessandro Borelli, president of the Garda hoteliers association, both present at the meeting with Brogiolo. Zaninelli highlighted that such a project could incorporate a nationwide informational campaign, leveraging the renewed local initiatives to promote the territory in new ways.

Borelli, for his part, suggested that some of the multimedia installations related to the park could be housed within the local accommodation facilities. “A more detailed version of the multisensory park project,” anticipates Comencini, “will be presented in the coming weeks, during the launch of the volume that compiles the results of recent archaeological excavations conducted over the past year.”