Desenzano, with its 22.000 inhabitants, is a lively town with shopping centres and various meetings and events all year round. Between Desenzano and Lonato there is a peat-bog where were found the remains of prehistoric houses, most of all pile-buildings.
It is a remarkable archaeological site, an ancient basin in which were found materials that were so particular, that the palaeontologists named a specific phase of the italian prehistory after this place (the "Culture of Polada").
Among the most relevant objects, a plough 4000 years old. Desenzano was an important centre also in the Roman period, thanks both to its closeness to the Via Emilia and its location, which soon made it one of the favourite residential places for rich Romans.
In 878 Desenzano, royal court, was given by Carlo Magno to the Monastery of San Zeno in Verona; two centuries later, it belonged to one of the feudal lords of Henry IV and then to the Riviera of Salò until 1426, when he entered the jurisdiction of Venice, until 1796.