Vespasiano Gonzaga is recognised as the founder of Sabbioneta, an ideal city built during the height of the Renaissance. The Duke intended this jewel to be the home country he had never known, aesthetically reproducing the emotions he experienced on his wanderings in the most beautiful European capitals.

The name Sabbioneta come from the two words: “sabbia” (sand) and “netta” (clean), because where the city is now was all once a foul-smelling, wet swamp, the likes of which only the ambitious design of Gonzaga could reclaim and restore.

Its defensive walls, street grid plan, public spaces and monuments make Sabbioneta an example of one of Europe's most ideally constructed cities, able to wield its influence on city planning and architecture both within the old continent and beyond.