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00 Costermano Sul Garda
Stemma di Costermano sul Garda

Veneto · Verona

Costermano sul Garda

A morainal-hill commune above the eastern shore, home to one of the largest German military cemeteries in Italy.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
34 min from Verona
By train
Station in the comune
Population
3,974

Known for

  • GERMAN CEMETERY

    Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof opened in 1967, with 21,931 Second World War graves, the second-largest German cemetery in Italy.

  • GARDA BALCONY

    Morainal-hill position at 237 meters above the eastern shore, with a continuous view across the lake to the Monte Baldo ridge.

  • OLIVE AND WINE

    Olive groves and Bardolino DOC vines on the moraine slopes, the working agriculture behind the holiday economy.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J8°
  • F10°
  • M13°
  • A16°
  • M20°
  • J25°
  • J28°
  • A27°
  • S23°
  • O18°
  • N12°
  • D9°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

The festa: Antonio abate, 17 January

Why come

The commune sits on a moraine amphitheater twenty-five kilometers northwest of Verona. The hills were a feud of the Brescia monastery of Santa Giulia in the early Middle Ages, then passed through Scaliger and Venetian rule before joining Italy in 1866; the name sul Garda was added only in 2018, to anchor the town's tourism identity to the water it sits above rather than on. That distinction matters here: this is not a lakefront village but a hill settlement looking down at the shore, its center, its cemetery hill, and its vineyard slopes arranged around the belvedere at Marciaga rather than around a harbor.

The economy runs on olive oil and hillside vines, and on the holiday accommodation that has filled these slopes since the 1970s, but the single largest reason people come here is not agricultural. The cemetery holds the dead of a war fought decades after the monastery's feud and centuries after the Scaliger lords, and it sits on the same morainal hill as the sanctuary, the parish church, and the vine rows, a place where the working landscape and the memorial landscape occupy the same short walk rather than separate zones.

The Sunday letter

Costermano sul Garda is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Costermano sul Garda comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Costermano sul Garda in our articles

How to get there

From Verona (VRN), about 42 minutes by car.

Milan (BGY) is about 1h 22m away.

By car from the centre of Trento 57 minutes or Brescia 58 minutes.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Verona, Venice or Bologna?

Coming by train into Verona Porta Nuova? Costermano sul Garda is about 32 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Verona airport.

Costermano sul Garda, photo 1
Costermano sul Garda, photo 2

What to see

  • Santuario della Madonna del Castello

    Sanctuary on the spur of Marciaga, its fifteenth-century frescoes intact, with a terrace looking over Lake Garda and the eastern shore.

  • Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof

    The graves cover the hillside above the lake, laid out since 1967 for the dead of the Second World War, a place kept in silence rather than commentary.

  • Chiesa di San Siro

    Parish church rebuilt in the nineteenth century in the center of the village, its freestanding campanile visible from the surrounding slopes, with a sightline to Monte Baldo across the water.

  • Belvedere di Marciaga

    Lookout above the village at around 350 meters, the principal point from which the lake and the morainal amphitheater are read as one landscape.

  • Bardolino DOC vineyards

    Hillside vines for the Corvina-Rondinella-Molinara wines of the Bardolino zone, with cantine open through the warm months.

The slow-trip planner

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We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

Living here

  • Population 3,974
  • In-betweeni
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Verona, 42 min drive
  • Regional capital Venezia, 1 h 40 min drive

Common questions

What is Costermano sul Garda known for?
Costermano sul Garda is a morainal-hill commune at 237 meters above the eastern shore, home to one of the largest German military cemeteries in Italy.
Where is Costermano sul Garda?
Costermano sul Garda is a comune in the province of Verona, in Veneto.
What is the nearest airport to Costermano sul Garda?
Verona (VRN), about 42 minutes by car.
Can you get to Costermano sul Garda without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Trento to Costermano sul Garda?
About 57 minutes by car.
When is the best time to visit Costermano sul Garda?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 17 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Costermano sul Garda?
The town keeps its patron saint's day: Antonio abate, 17 January.
Which other towns are like Costermano sul Garda?
Gozzano, Bardolino and Bellano.
How many people live in Costermano sul Garda?
3,974 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 237 m
  • Population: 3,974
  • Surface area: 16.74 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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