On 11 April 1848 Castelnuovo del Garda was almost totally destroyed and burned by the Austrian empire army (including the church and the medieval tower), during the first Italian independence war. That day, 400 men of the fought against 3000 Austrian soldiers, which consequentially burned the city killing around 89 local citizens (46 of them women and children) as reprisal for the revolutionary actions that were taking place in the region.