Galleria degli Antichi and Palazzo del Giardino

The Galleria degli Antichi and the Palazzo del Giardino are adjacent, contemporaneous, Renaissance-style buildings located on Piazza d`Armi #1 in Sabbioneta, in the Province of Mantua, region of Lombardy, Italy. Prior to 1797, the buildings were connected to the Rocca or Castle of Sabbioneta (razed by Napoleon's forces during the Siege of Mantua), and the gallery once housed the Gonzaga collection of antique Roman statuary and hunting trophies. While the architectural design of the gallery is striking, the richness of the interior decoration of the palazzo is also dazzling.

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The galleria or gallery was once a corridor, aligned south to north, linked to the large Sabbioneta Castle that stood inside the walled town. Described as a "grand corridor" of the castle, it was built with stone and brick in 1584–1586. It connects to the externally drab Palazzo Giardino, which through a second portico (corridor piccolo), once connected to the castle. The statuary collection was acquired in the 16th century by Vespasiano Gonzaga from antique dealers and collectors of northern Italy, as well as much of it carried away as booty by his father after the imperial Sack of Rome in 1527. The hunting trophies originated from imperial collections in Prague. Much of this collection remained in the palace until 1773, when the Austrian authorities transferred them to the Palace of the Accademia di Mantova, leaving the gallery an elegant but vacant shell of its former state. In 1915 the renamed Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana ceded the collection to the comune, which has since moved it to the Palazzo Ducale of Mantua. Many pieces however, were either sold or looted in the imperial Sack of Mantua (1630) during the War of the Mantuan Succession.

The fresco decoration of the narrow gallery was completed in 1587 by Giovanni and Alessandro Alberti, and included some architectural trompe l'oeil.

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