Located in the northern Adige river bend, the Arsenale Austriaco is a real military town covering an area of 70,000 square metres. It was built between 1854 and 1861, when Verona was for Austria an important military fort of the Quadrilatero for the control of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.
Francesco Giuseppe I arsenal was built to inspect and adjust artillery light weapons and to have a logistics centre and deposit.
It was presented by Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Petrash, a military genius inspired by the Vienna Arsenal. Its typically Romanesque style with alternating red, yellow and white colours consciously combines the design of medieval castles and the architecture of the nearby Castelvecchio bridge. It consists of nine units separated by yards housing warehouses, deposits and workshops where blacksmiths, carpenters and saddles used to work, as well as offices and stables.
During World War II, the arsenal was severely damaged by bombing and only in 1995 it became the property of the city which turned it into a public garden, an exhibition and event centre, and a car park.