1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Riva

RIVA, a fortified district town of Tirol, Austria, near the Italian frontier. Pop. (1900) 7550. It is a lake port and steamship station at the northern extremity of the Lago di Garda. There are two forts on the Monte Brione a little over a mile north-east of the town, and the old castle of La Rocca was reconstructed and extended in accordance with modern requirements in 1850. The Minorite Church (1603), with altar pictures by Guido Reni and other Italian painters, is much frequented as a place of pilgrimage. In addition to its transit trade and the entertainment of visitors, the principal resources of the town are the manufacture of paper, iron wares and pottery, the cultivation of the silk-worm and the olive tree, and a considerable commerce in timber, planks and coal. Riva is connected with the Ledro valley by a picturesque road which passes in a series of tunnels and galleries along the rocky and precipitous west shore of the lake.