Castel Goffredo - History

History

Founded in a region inhabited from the Bronze Age, Castel Goffredo belonged to the count-bishops of Brescia from the ninth century to 1115, when the commune was established. When Brescia proved unable to come to the commune's defense, in 1337 it placed itself under the protection of Mantua and the Gonzaga. From 1348 to 1404 it was governed from Milan by the Visconti and returned to the Gonzaga in 1441.

Castel Goffredo became the seat of an autonymous feudo of marquis Aloysio Gonzaga in 1511. At his death, his fiefs of Castel Goffredo, Castiglione delle Stiviere and Solferino were divided among his three sons. The eldest, Alfonso, who gained Castel Goffredo, was assassinated in 1592 by members of the household of his nephew Rodolfo Gonzaga of Castiglione, brother of the saintly Aloysius Gonzaga; Alfonso, publicly tried for murder but acquitted, was murdered in turn, 31 January 1593, occasioning a popular uprising that reestablished the Magnifica Comunità. The territory was annexed in 1603 by the duchy of Milan following a bitter suit heard before the Emperor, and remainmed a part of Milanese territory until 1707.

In 1861 Castel Goffredo became part of the new Kingdom of Italy. Starting in the 1920s and gaining momentum following World War II, it enjoyed a period of economic development that made it a center of hosiery manufacture and eventually resulted in its title of città in 2002.