Limonaia del Castèl (Lake Garda lemon house)

According to the tradition recorded by the municipality, citrus reached Lake Garda in the thirteenth century from the Genoese Riviera, brought by the friars of the convent of San Francesco in Gargnano. The first limonaie, with their walls, pillars, steps, gateways and beams, appeared in the seventeenth century, and the heaviest investment came in the eighteenth, notably from the Bettoni family. The Limonaia del Castèl dates from the early eighteenth century. It belonged first to the Amadei family, then to the Bertoni and Patuzzi, and in the nineteenth century to the Girardi and Polidoro families, before Giuseppe Segala bought it on 19 June 1926. On 13 September 1786 Goethe, passing through Limone, described these gardens of white pillars in rows, topped with stout beams for covering the plants in winter.

The Brescian shore was then the northernmost commercial citrus district in the world, shipping fruit to Germany, Poland and Russia. Decline set in from the mid-nineteenth century: gummosis from 1855, competition from southern lemons after Italian unification in 1861, and the invention of synthetic citric acid. The First World War, during which the gardens' covering materials were requisitioned, and the exceptionally cold winter of 1928-29 finished off most of the limonaie.

The municipality acquired the Limonaia del Castèl in 1995. Work proceeded in stages: the terraces were cleared and the beams replaced in 1997, the roof of the entrance casèl was rebuilt in 1999, and in 2002-03 the central casèl was restored, the irrigation channel brought back into use, toilets and electricity installed, and covering materials fitted on two terraces. About fifty citrus trees were planted in April 2004, and the site opened to the public on 22 July 2004.

The limonaia covers 1,633 m² at the foot of the Mughera rocks. Its terraces, the còle, are held up by dry-stone walls: three on one side and four on the other of the central casèl, a building of several storeys that links them, with a small secondary casèl alongside. A massive wall encloses it on three sides, and water arrives from the San Giovanni stream through a conduit, the Calmèta, built in the early eighteenth century.

The structure follows the pattern the municipality describes for Garda lemon houses: white pillars tied to one another or to the wall by heavy chestnut struts 30 to 40 cm across, the sparadòs, which carry five or six parallel lines of lighter beams, the cantér. In November fir boards were laid on them as a roof (3 cm thick and 5 to 6 m long), while the sunny front received intermediate boards, wood-framed glazed panels about 50 cm wide and 5 to 7 m long, and doors, every piece numbered. Gaps were stopped with dried grass; by St Catherine's Day, 25 November, the house had to be sealed, and fires were lit along the terraces on the coldest nights. Everything came down again in March. The stone brackets that held the covers can still be seen; the sources consulted do not say whether the covers fitted on two terraces in 2002-03 are still put up every winter.

The collection brings together many kinds of citrus: lemons, citrons, sweet and bitter oranges, chinotto, grapefruit, mandarins, mandaranci, clementines and kumquats, with bergamot added by one source. Figures differ: the municipality states that about fifty plants were set out in April 2004, a number repeated by the Garda museums network, whereas the tourist office and the Grandi Giardini Italiani network speak of around a hundred trees, grown by traditional methods.

The central casèl houses the museum and teaching centre, with panels on the history of the limonaia and on the citrus species, old tools of the limonaï and videos, including a view of the site filmed from above. An educational trail runs through the former tool sheds, and the irrigation channels can still be seen in the terraces. A free multilingual audio guide accompanies the visit.

The limonaia lies in the upper part of Limone's historic centre, a few minutes' walk from the lake, and ceramic tiles mark the way through the lanes. A visit takes about half an hour, longer for those who read the panels and linger on the terraces. From the terraces the view takes in the village roofs and Lake Garda. The opening calendar changes from year to year: the main season runs from spring to autumn, and since the winter of 2024-25 the local press has announced weekend and holiday openings in winter, the season in which the purpose of the pillars and beams is easiest to grasp. It is wise to check the dates with the municipality before setting out.