Peschiera del Garda in the context of Lombardy-Venetia

The Quadrilatero (English: Quadrilateral, for greater specificity often called the "Quadrilateral fortresses") is the traditional name of a defensive system of the Austrian Empire in the Lombardy-Venetia region of Italy, which connected the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, Legnago and Verona between the Mincio, the Po, and the Adige Rivers. The name refers to the fact that on a map the fortresses appear to form the vertices of a quadrilateral. In the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutions of 1848, they were the only fully modernized and armed fortresses within the Empire.

Starting from c. 1850, supplies and reinforcements were shipped to the positions through the new Venice-Milan railroad.

The Mincio (Italian: [ˈmintʃo]; Lombard: Mens; Venetian: Menzo; Latin: Mincius; Ancient Greek: Μίγχιος, romanized: Mínchios) is a river in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.

The river is the main outlet of Lake Garda. It is a part of the Sarca-Mincio river system which also includes the river Sarca and the Lake Garda. The river starts from the south-eastern tip of the lake at the town of Peschiera del Garda and then flows for about 65 kilometres (40 mi) past Mantua and into the river Po. From Lake Garda until it reaches Pozzolo, it forms the boundary between Veneto and Lombardy regions.