The Dürer Promenade in Arco
Hiking trail • Garda Trentino and Valle di Ledro
The Dürer Promenade in Arco
<p>A walk from the centre of Arco to Varignano, in the footsteps of the painter Albrecht Dürer who at the end of the 15th century was inspired by these places to paint the castle and town.</p>
<p>This itinerary follows in the footsteps of the Nuremburg artist Albrecht Dürer through the olive groves of Arco to the point where he painted his famous view of the town, immortalising the castle surrounded by the medieval village and olive groves.</p> <p>Dürer visited this town on Lake Garda on the way back from his first Italian journey (1494), which he embarked on in order to get to see the artistic innovations introduced during the Renaissance. His destination was Venice and he probably moved around from there to other towns in northern Italy where he could examine the works of masters of the period such as Mantegna, Carpaccio and the brothers Giovanni and Gentile Bellini.</p> <p>The path is accompanied by some of the writings of Italian authors of the period (Nicolò d’Arco, Jacopo Vargnano), which give us an idea of the amazement felt by a traveller from the North looking for the first time on a country with a Mediterranean atmosphere and landscape.</p>