Isola Dovarese

The name of the village derives from its geographical location and from the history of the noble Cremonese family Da Dovara.

POPULATION

1.158

DENSITY

122,28 ab/sq. Km

AREA

9,47 sq. km

ELEVATION

35 m a.s.l.

PATRON SAINT

San Nicola di Bari

Isola, or rather Insula, as it is mentioned in the ancient documents, is located on a small drop-shaped terrace, stretched out in the plain of the river Oglio. The waters, which surround it, made this settlement particularly important.

Anna Da Dovara in 1332 married Filippino Gonzaga, and Isola passed under the dominion of a minor branch of the Gonzaga dynasty, lords of Mantua.
Giulio Cesare Gonzaga wanted the Piazza Matteotti to be re-organized, a beautiful square fascinating for its monumentality, compared to the circumscribed dimensions of the village.

Along portico closes the square on one side, interrupted only by the entrance arch to the center; on the short sides are the Town Hall and the Palazzo della Guardia, which today houses a delightful café-restaurant.
Beyond the arch, there is the parish church of San Nicola, which houses an Annunciation by Gian Francesco Bembo and an Ecce Homo by Bernardino Campi.

Every second weekend in September, the traditional Palio delle Contrade takes place, with four historic districts facing each other: Le Gerre, Porta Tenca, San Giuseppe, San Bernardino. For three days Isola Dovarese wears late-Gothic clothes and stages banquets, music, dances and antics, the courtly atmosphere of the late fifteenth century.