Monuments of Verona explained

Whs:City of Verona
Criteria:C (ii) (iv)
Id:797
Year:2000

The monuments of Verona are a vast number of architecturally, archaeologically, historically, and artistically significant cultural assets that characterize the city of Verona. Precisely because of the richness of its monuments and the urban evolution that has developed seamlessly over the centuries, UNESCO declared the city a World Heritage Site in 2000.

Religious architecture

Churches

See also: Churches of Verona.

Verona Cathedral: The Verona Cathedral is a complex of buildings consisting of the main church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, the church of St. John in Fonte, formerly a baptistery, the church of St. Helena, and the Chapter Library, one of the oldest libraries in the world and among the most important of its kind in Europe.[1] [2] Where the Cathedral stands today, public baths and a temple dedicated to Minerva probably stood in Roman times.[3] The first basilica was built in the area now occupied by the church of St. Helen, though already around the middle of the fifth century, in view of its small size, a second, larger church building had to be built, while the undemolished parts of the older building were used for various functions. The latter, however, collapsed toward the end of the 8th century due to a fire, so that extensive remains of mosaic floors under the church of St. Helen and in the canonical cloister still survive of these first two early Christian churches. Thus, between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th, the new cathedral dedicated to St. Mary Matricular was built on the very area where it still stands today, work that was planned and begun by Bishop Annon and completed by one of his successors, Ratoldo.[4] The disastrous earthquake of 1117, however, severely damaged it, and it was then enlarged and heavily restored over the next two decades, acquiring its final Romanesque appearance, although over the centuries it underwent several modernizations that partly modified its morphology, particularly in the early medieval and Renaissance periods.
  • Basilica of San Zeno:The basilica of San Zeno, overlooking the same square on which the abbey tower of San Zeno and the church of San Procolo stand, is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque architecture in Italy. The site where the basilica would later be built was originally a Roman and early Christian cemetery area near the Via Gallica, where Verona's bishop Zeno, the city's patron saint, was also buried, and on which a church and a coenobium were built.[5] The building was rebuilt in the early 9th century at the behest of Bishop Ratoldo and the king of Italy Pepin, who judged it inconvenient for the body of the patron saint to rest in a poor church, so, with the help of Archdeacon Pacifico, a new basilica was built to which the saint's body could be transferred, which was completed and consecrated in 806.[6] The building underwent several reconstructions due to the Hungarian invasions[7] and the earthquake of 1117,[8] so its final appearance in Lombard Romanesque style derives from major works carried out over the centuries, while still keeping the medieval layout substantially unchanged. The church houses several works of art, including a masterpiece by Andrea Mantegna, the San Zeno altarpiece, the famous portal with its bronze panels, and the large rose window on the facade, called the "Wheel of Fortune," by the stone mason Brioloto de Balneo.
  • Basilica of St. Anastasia: The basilica of Santa Anastasia, which retains the name of a pre-existing church from the Lombard era dedicated to the fourth-century martyr Anastasia of Sirmium, is a masterful example of Italian Gothic architecture. The building stands at the terminal section of the ancient decumanus maximus, Verona's main Roman road continuation of the Via Postumia,[9] next to the smaller, deconsecrated church of St. Peter Martyr. At the end of the 13th century, the Dominican order settled there, to whom is owed the construction of the Gothic basilica, also dedicated to St. Peter Martyr, a Dominican native of Verona and patron saint of the city along with St. Zeno.[10] A great contribution to the construction of the church is owed to the Della Scala family, Lords of Verona, through generous donations and testamentary bequests that financed its lengthy construction.[11] Work continued until the end of the 16th century, never reaching completion of the façade.[12] In the right transept of the church is the Pellegrini Chapel, famous because it contains what is considered Pisanello's masterpiece, the St. George and the Princess, frescoed on the outer wall above the entrance arch.[13]
  • Church of San Fermo: The church of San Fermo Maggiore is one of the most original religious buildings in Verona, consisting of two churches built in different periods, connected and overlapping each other. The lower part of the church building was built mainly between the 11th and 12th centuries in the Romanesque style, which was followed by major works in the 14th century, during which the upper church was built and the earlier style was harmoniously blended with the typical Gothic architecture.[14] This Gothic episode constitutes a singular case in the city's panorama, both because of the presence of spires and pinnacles that are evidently intended to refer to French architecture,[15] and because of the presence of an unusual roof, composed of two pitches on which clings a wooden structure that takes on the appearance of an upside-down ship's hull due to the presence of a series of corbels alternating with half-vaults, superimposed on each other.[16] The complex, located in the vicinity of Ponte Navi, was built on the site of an earlier one, which in turn was built where tradition has it that Saints Firmus and Rusticus suffered martyrdom in 304.
    • Other churches

    Other churches of special significance in Verona include:

    Cemeteries

    Scaliger tombs: The Scaliger tombs, located to the side of the church of Santa Maria Antica, just a few steps from the Piazza dei Signori, are a scenic and monumental funerary complex of the Scaliger family, intended to contain the remains of some of the illustrious representatives of the lineage, including that of the most famous Lord of Verona, Cangrande I della Scala, to whom Dante Alighieri dedicates Paradise. It is a masterpiece of Gothic art, an incredible fusion of sculpture and architecture, so much so that the French historian Georges Duby, in his Europe of the Middle Ages, called the Scaliger tombs "one of the most distinguished and significant monuments of Gothic art." The Scaliger sepulchre consists of three main canopied tombs, those of Mastino II and Cansignorio della Scala, as well as the aforementioned Cangrande I della Scala, but there are also the tombs of six members of the dynasty: Mastino I, Alberto I, Bartolomeo, Alboino, Giovanni and Cangrande II della Scala.[37]
  • Monumental cemetery: Verona's Monumental Cemetery is the city's main cemetery, characterized by a sober neoclassical style and a main facade decorated with sculptures inspired by the Canovian style.[38] Its construction became necessary as a result of Napoleonic laws that required cemetery areas to be built outside the city walls, so in 1828 the architect Giuseppe Barbieri was commissioned to build the new cemetery near Porta Vittoria. The complex, despite its generous size, was quickly completed, so new additions were made in the 1910s and 1930s.[39] Inside are housed some two hundred monumental tombs, adorned with sculptures by artists including some by Giovanni Dupré, Ettore Ferrari, and Luigi Ferrari, as well as numerous local sculptors and architects, such as Ugo Zannoni and Ettore Fagiuoli. Famous burials include those of Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni, writer Emilio Salgari, and Renaissance architect Michele Sanmicheli.[40]

    • Synagogues

    Synagogue of Verona: The Verona synagogue is located in the heart of what for many centuries was the Jewish ghetto of Verona, just a few steps from Via Mazzini. The construction of the building began in the second half of the 19th century and was finished with a modern compositional language chosen by Verona architect Ettore Fagiuoli in the first half of the following century. Having been built at a time of emancipation and social equalization of Jews, the place of worship is clearly identifiable from the outside due to its monumental facade, with the entrance portal set in a sort of large marble triumphal arch decorated with six bas-relief panels with Jewish symbols and surmounted by the Tablets of the Law. It is one of the largest synagogues in northern Italy, being able to accommodate approximately one thousand people.[41]

    Civil architecture

    Palaces

    Palazzo della Ragione: The Palazzo della Ragione (Palace of Reason), so named because during the rule of the Serenissima it housed the court, is a large central courtyard complex located straddling Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, built in the late 12th century to house the new magistracies of the Comune. The heart of political power first, and judicial power later, over the centuries it underwent a number of transformations to house the College of Notaries, the Silk Duty, the Fiscal Chamber, the Savings Bank, the Magistrate's Court and the Court of Assizes. The most prestigious room is the Notaries' Chapel, built between 1408 and 1419 on the commission of the College of Notaries, who dedicated it to Saints Zeno and Daniel. The room consists of four communicating rooms covered with ribbed vaults and houses one of the most important decorative complexes made on public commission in Verona, executed in the 18th century by Veronese painters Alessandro Marchesini, Giambattista Bellotti, Sante Prunati, and Frenchman Louis Dorigny. Also part of the building complex are the Lamberti Tower, built in 1172 and elevated several times until it became the tallest tower in the city, and the Stairway of Reason, fine late Gothic architecture built of red Verona marble. Following the displacement of the courthouse, the building was restored to a design by Tobia Scarpa in the early 21st century, becoming the permanent home of the Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art, which displays modern Italian works by artists such as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, and Francesco Hayez.[42]
  • Palazzo del Capitanio: The Palazzo del Capitanio is a large building with a central courtyard facing Piazza dei Signori, so named because in Venetian times the Capitano, or city rector, settled there. Originally the palace, built by Cansignorio della Scala in the 14th century, was a fortified building with an austere appearance, characterized by three imposing towers that made it look almost like a castle; of this medieval palace only one of the towers survives intact, while the rest of the building underwent some transformations during the 16th century, so that its present appearance looks partly Gothic and partly from the Renaissance. Of particular artistic interest are the entrance portal to the building's courtyard, probably the work of architect Michele Sanmicheli, and the Baroque portal known as the portal of the Bombardiers, as in the past it gave access from the courtyard of the palace to the headquarters of the city's artillery corps. The palace is home to the Scavi Scaligeri International Center for Photography, an underground exhibition space that was built within an archaeological site that came to light between 1981 and 1983: the museum thus allows visitors to see Roman, Lombard, and medieval artifacts while simultaneously visiting exhibitions by international photographers.[43]
  • Juliet's House: Casa Capuleti, long owned by the noble Dal Cappello family, whose coat of arms is visible in the entrance arch facing the courtyard, is a medieval residential building built in the 12th century on Cappello Street. The Cappello-Capuleti juxtaposition led to the belief that this was the real house of Juliet, the protagonist of the well-known tragedy by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and in accordance with this it was restored in 1935 by the director of the Veronese Civic Museums Antonio Avena: the work led to the replacement of the previous balcony with a more striking marble one, as well as the modification of some doors and windows. The works inside the house respected the structure of the medieval spaces, such as the balustrade that allows communication between the different rooms of the house, and such as the main hall on the second floor, which in the past could be used indifferently for living and sleeping. The pictorial decorations, on the other hand, while reiterating recurring themes for the time when the building was constructed, were produced from scratch. In the courtyard is a bronze statue of Juliet by sculptor Nereo Costantini.[44]
  • Gran Guardia: The Palazzo della Gran Guardia is a monumental complex overlooking Piazza Bra, a short distance from Palazzo Barbieri and the Arena of Verona. Construction work began in the early 17th century on a design by architect Domenico Curtoni: initially it was intended to be used as a weapon facility, with a vast portico that could be used to review troops and a main floor that would house the military academy. Work was interrupted, however, and did not resume until 1820, when architect Giuseppe Barbieri took over Curtoni's design and completed the work previously begun. The design of the building was influenced both by the one from the overlooking Roman amphitheater, particularly by the succession of wide arcades on the ground floor, and by the architecture of the famous Renaissance architect Michele Sanmicheli, in particular the two-story subdivision is reminiscent of the nearby Honorij Palace while the gables of the upper windows are similar to those of Bevilacqua Palace, located on Corso Cavour. The building was restored and expanded in the late 20th century to accommodate a modern and accessible multi-level conference and exhibition center.[45]
    • Other palacesOther palaces of special significance in Verona include:

    Villas

    Villa Bernini Buri: Villa Bernini Buri, located in the heart of the Adige Park, is one of the most important examples of a Venetian villa in the entire Veronese territory, both for the monumental character of its architecture and for its historical importance, as the structure of the complex has remained unaltered, still preserving, in addition to the manor house, two chapels, the rustic cottages, the stables and the farmer's house. The manor house was richly furnished and frescoed, had a library that also collected manuscripts and parchments, and there were works of art from the Italian tradition (including paintings by the painter and miniaturist Liberale da Verona) and Flemish painters. However, at the end of World War II, in just five days, the villa was ransacked and stripped of all its possessions by the townspeople, who were enraged against the nobility whom they held guilty of the war. The main building was built in the early 17th century to a design by Domenico Brugnoli, a nephew of Sanmicheli.[61]
    Other villasOther villas of special significance in Verona include:

    Towers

    Among the towers of special significance in Verona are:

    Theaters

    Verona Arena: The Arena is a Roman amphitheater, now located in the center of the city, in the elegant Piazza Bra, although when it was built, in the 1st century, it was located just outside the city walls. It is the monument that more than any other recalls Verona's Roman origins, so much so that it has become a symbol of the Veneto town throughout the world, along with the figures of Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the great buildings that have characterized Roman architecture and one of the ancient amphitheaters that has come down to us with the best degree of preservation, owing to the systematic restorations carried out since the 16th century;[69] for this very reason, despite the many transformations it has undergone, it allows the visitor to be able to easily understand the structure of this kind of building, strictly subject to the function for which it was intended but nonetheless endowed with an essential beauty.[70] Due to its capacity of 22,000 spectators (which in Roman times even reached 30,000 seats, as it was not the stage, which occupies about a third of the seats, and due to the presence of the portico at the highest part of the cavea),[71] [72] in the summer season it hosts the famous Arenian opera festival, whose seasons have been held continuously since 1913, while in the spring and autumn seasons it is a stage for many international singers and musicians. In the past, however, it hosted not only gladiatorial fights and Roman-era shows, but also tournaments and jousts of chivalry, ballets, circuses, plays and even bullfights.[73]
  • Roman theater: The Roman theater is an open-air theater built in the first century B.C.[74] at the foot of San Pietro Hill, on the left bank of the Adige River. It was part of a plan to monumentalize the entire hill, which became a large urban scene on several levels:[75] along the river bank was the theater building, enclosed on both sides by the lapideus and marmoreus bridges; along the slope were several orders of terraces; and finally at the top of the hill was a Roman temple, the remains of which were discovered during some work at castel San Pietro.[76] During the Middle Ages the building fell into disuse and thus into disrepair, so much so that on its remains a whole neighborhood arose that exploited the structure of the theater itself as a foundation, of which the church of Saints Siro and Libera still remains as evidence.[77] The other buildings were demolished in the 19th century during archaeological excavations and the restitution of the complex that took place thanks to the work of Andrea Monga, a wealthy merchant who dabbled in archaeology. In 1904 the area was finally bought by the municipal administration, which continued the archaeological excavation work until 1914. Under the direction of Antonio Avena, the exhibition itinerary of the city's archaeological museum of the same name was transferred to the large monumental complex, which after restoration shows one of the best-preserved theaters in northern Italy.[78] During the summer season, the building is still used as a theatrical space, and hosts the so-called Veronese theater summer, whose editions have been held continuously since 1948.
  • Philharmonic Theater: The Teatro Filarmonico is Verona's main opera house, owned since its inception by the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona; it is used by the Fondazione Arena di Verona as the home of the winter opera season. The building was built in the 18th century on the initiative of Marquis Scipione Maffei, as Verona needed a new and stable opera house: the decision was made to build an Italian-style structure, with vast stalls and overlapping tiers of boxes, and the most famous theatrical architect of the time, architect Bibbiena, was called in to design it. The theater was inaugurated on the evening of January 6, 1732, with Antonio Vivaldi's pastoral drama La fida ninfa. The opera season became particularly famous but had to be interrupted in 1749, when a fire broke out in the theater, which had to be renovated. It suffered further serious damage toward the end of World War II, when it was hit by Anglo-American bombing; the building was rebuilt as similar as possible to its predecessor, however, the work was rather lengthy and lasted until 1975, when it was inaugurated with the opera Falstaff, or the three jokes by Antonio Salieri. The same complex houses the Maffeian Lapidary Museum, established in the 18th century, and is considered one of the oldest public museum institutions in Europe.[79]
    • Other theatersOther theaters of special significance in Verona include:

    Bridges

    Ponte Pietra: The Pietra bridge is the oldest bridge in Verona, located near the Roman theater, in an area that from prehistoric times must have featured a ford, a crucial meeting point between different communication routes to which the city's birth is due. A first wooden bridge was put in place during the construction of the Via Postumia in 148 B.C. at the same spot where the ford was, later replaced by the stone one, of which the two left arches, made of opus quadratum, have come down to us intact. In the imperial age it underwent a major restoration during which the depiction of a river deity was placed on the keystone ashlar of the second left arch.[82] Much more troubled was the life of the monument in the medieval centuries, when the three right arches suffered damage and partial collapse due to the flooding of the Adige River. In 1298 the Lord of Verona Alberto della Scala had the cityward tower restored and the adjacent archway rebuilt, while in 1508 the City Council commissioned Fra' Giocondo to oversee the reconstruction of the two arches that still needed repairing.[83] However, the bridge suffered its most serious damage on April 24, 1945, when it was undermined and detonated by retreating German soldiers, a blast that left only the cityward archway intact. Superintendent of Monuments Piero Gazzola, supported by the entire public, chose to rebuild the bridge as it was and where it was, thanks to the technical collaboration of Veronese architect Libero Cecchini and the specialized contribution of historians, archaeologists, engineers, university professors, and various other experts and technicians.[84]
  • Castelvecchio Bridge: The Castelvecchio Bridge is a three-arched crenellated and fortified structure, an outstanding example of 14th-century military engineering, which was built by Cangrande II della Scala together with the castle of the same name, of which it is a part. With its bold structure it was placed in a strategic position in relation to the castle, on the side of the keep of the fortress and dividing the two main courts. The bridge's sturdiness enabled it to pass through five centuries of history unscathed until the French, following the Treaty of Lunéville, occupied the city in 1802 and decided to chop off the tower on the country side and remove the battlements.[85] It suffered more serious impairment during World War II when, like all the other bridges in the city, it was blown up by the retreating Germans. At the end of the war public opinion pushed for the reconstruction of the bridge, as one of the main identity symbols of the city, so the superintendent a Piero Gazzola decided also in this case, as with Ponte Pietra, to restore it to its pre-blast condition rather than build a bridge from scratch. The reconstruction project was drawn up by engineer Alberto Minghetti and architect Libero Cecchini, supported by a team of specialists.[86]
    • Other bridgesOther bridges of special significance in Verona include:

    Libraries

    Libraries of particular note in Verona include:

    Military architecture

    See also: Verona defensive system.

    Castles

    Castelvecchio: Castelvecchio, erected in the 14th century by the Lord of Verona Cangrande II della Scala, is the most impressive monument in Verona after the Roman amphitheater Arena. Originally called the castle of San Martino in Aquaro because of the church included inside (it assumed its present name only after two new castles, San Pietro and San Felice, were built on top of San Pietro hill), it is a vast military fortification with high defensive towers, which also had a residential purpose. The complex is divided into two parts by the imposing city walls: to the west is the Scaligeri residence, protected by a narrow courtyard with a double order of walls, at the center of which stands the castle's tallest tower, the keep, from whose side the three-arched fortified bridge of the same name launches out to the other side of the Adige River; to the east, on the other hand, is the rectangular-plan major courtyard, originally intended as the Piazza d'Armi. The complex continued to serve its military function under the Venetian government, during the brief Napoleonic occupation, and finally under Austrian rule, when it was used as a barracks.[94] After hosting the Verona trial of fascist leaders in January 1944 and being bombed during an Allied raid, Castelvecchio underwent a major restoration and museum set-up by renowned architect Carlo Scarpa. The Castelvecchio museum is described as one of the most important works of postwar Italian museography, with valuable arrangements imitated many years later, and houses important collections of medieval, Renaissance, and modern art.[95]
  • Castel San Pietro: Castel San Pietro is located atop the hill of the same name, rising behind Verona's Roman theater and a short distance from the Adige River and the Pietra Bridge. This hill is strategically located, so much so that it was the place where the prehistoric settlement of Verona developed, moved within the bend of the river only in Roman times. Precisely the importance of the position, dominant over the plain opening to the south, is the cause of the construction of numerous structures over the centuries: a temple was built there in Roman times; a castrum and the church of San Pietro in Castello were built there in the early Middle Ages; an imposing castle was built there at the end of the 14th century, commissioned by the Visconti family, which was reinforced during Venetian rule, surviving until 1801, when Napoleon's troops had it demolished before handing the town over to the Austrians; finally, on the ruins of the earlier buildings, the Habsburg military barracks was built, currently being restored and fitted out to house a museum of the city.[96] The nineteenth-century building recalls, with the presence of the stylized towers and battlements, the forms of medieval fortresses, integrating with the context through the use of building materials typical of historic Veronese construction and architectural elements that recall Romanesque architecture.[97] The forecourt in front of castel San Pietro, which is very popular due to the presence of a large panoramic terrace overlooking the city, can be reached either by a staircase that unravels from the side of the Roman theater or by the Verona funicular, built in the early 20th century.
    • Other castlesOther castles in Verona include:

    City walls

    Roman Walls: The Roman walls of Verona were an important defensive curtain equipped with numerous monumental towers and gates, built in several successive construction phases starting from the late Republican age and continuing through the early Roman-Germanic kingdoms. The first phase of construction of the defenses started around the second half of the 1st century BC, following Verona's attainment of the rank of Roman municipium,[100] a second phase of renovation and enlargement of the city walls took place in the 3rd century at the urging of Emperor Gallienus,[101] and finally in a final phase Theodoric the Great, on the beginnings of the 6th century, again strengthened the Roman city defenses, adding a second circle.[102] Of the curtain walls that encircled the built-up area of Roman Verona few visible traces remain, although their layout is still very evident today as the historical fabric grew and developed by leaning against and reusing surviving portions of the walls. Of the late republican walls, in particular, only two sections of brick wall have been found, discovered between the Adige and Porta Borsari and in Via Leoncino, while more conspicuous remains of the imperial walls have been preserved, mainly in Piazza Mura di Gallieno.[103] Of the curtain wall erected by Theodoric, on the other hand, conspicuous ruins remain visible in Via Diaz, in the alleys S. Matteo and del Guasto, in Via S. Cosimo, Leoncino and Amanti streets. Better preserved, however, are the two main gates, Porta Borsari and Porta Leoni.[104]
  • Municipal walls: The municipal walls of Verona were defensive walls erected to the south of the historic center in the medieval age, near the Adigetto, of which ample traces remain visible along Via Pallone and inside Castelvecchio, while little evidence remains of the various gates that opened in the curtain wall due to the works that led to the enlargement of the fornixes. They were built starting in the 12th century[105] and strengthened during the rule of Ezzelino III da Romano,[106] when they attained a more accomplished arrangement consisting of a wall-antemural-ditch system, thus a type of fortification based on the concept of gradual defense.[107] With the enlargement of the magistral curtain wall carried out by Cangrande I della Scala, it slowly came to lose its strategic importance, and this extraordinary historical relic of Veronese military architecture was transformed over the centuries into a logistical system of military buildings. The system of military buildings is similar to a large arsenal with linear development, in which the buildings took on different purposes: barracks, hospital, powder magazine, mill, granary, bakery, stable, and warehouse. The ideal center of the great military system became the palace of the Grand Guard, whose vast portico would be used to review troops while the main floor would house the military academy, although it was never finished.
  • Scaliger walls: The Scaliger walls of Verona were a curtain wall, the hillside portion of which still survives, built during the rule of the Della Scala family, Lords of Verona in the 13th and 14th centuries. The walls were commissioned by Cangrande I della Scala to the architect Calzaro, as an inscription dated January 1325 informs,[108] who thus had the city's fortifications expanded after the first interventions carried out by Alberto I della Scala between 1287 and 1289.[109] Due to this radical intervention, all the ancient and populous suburban neighborhoods were able to dismantle their individual defenses, becoming definitively part of the city's fabric, defended by mighty walls that conferred great prestige on Verona.[110] Two centuries later, during the rule of the Serenissima, the previous curtain wall was reinforced through the construction of thick scarp walls and the building of several bastions, circular and polygonal, making the fortifications more suitable for the introduction of gunpowder.[111] In the 19th century there was a further restoration of the Scaliger hill wall by the Austrian Genie Direction, with the removal of part of the battlements and the lowering of the towers, yet the medieval fortifications were not altered, and they survive in similar forms to the original ones and are in a good state of preservation.[112]
  • Venetian walls: The Venetian walls of Verona were an important defensive curtain wall equipped with numerous bastions and monumental gates, commissioned by the Venetian Republic to adapt the previous Scaliger curtain wall to the introduction of gunpowder, given Verona's strategic importance. It was particularly the war of the League of Cambrai that demonstrated that the old walls were no longer sufficient and that a complete overhaul of the defensive system was necessary.[113] This was carried out starting in 1530 on the plans of the well-known Veronese architect Michele Sanmicheli when he officially assumed the appointment of superintendent of the military factories of Verona, a position he held until his death, while at the same time carrying out a harmonious and functional renewal of the city's urban structure. Sanmicheli bequeathed to the city a vast and articulated bastioned wall as well as the monumental gates of San Zeno, Palio and Nuova, defined by Giorgio Vasari as among the most beautiful in Italy.[114] At the beginning of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic wars, all the bastions of the right Adige wall were demolished by French troops, except for those of San Francesco and Spagna, located near the river, upstream and downstream of the city: those lost were then rebuilt with a different technique during Austrian rule, a few years after the end of the war.[115]
  • Austrian walls: The Austrian walls of Verona, also known as the magistral walls, are the system of bastioned curtains and monumental gates surrounding the city of Verona in their present state, forming part of a complex city defense system that also consists of a series of fortifications, entrenched camps, storehouses and barracks, both outside and inside the city. The final shape of the magisterial wall derives from the enlargement and restructuring, carried out in the 19th century during the Austrian rule of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, of the entire system of fortifications inherited from the medieval period, in the hilly area, and modern, in the plain area. The Scaliger and Venetian defensive walls had suffered major damage and demolitions during the Napoleonic wars and, in particular the Venetian bastions, therefore had to be restructured, also in accordance with the new military disciplines and tactics that had made obsolete the defensive criteria that had been previously pursued:[116] the project and works were entrusted in 1831 by Field Marshal Radetzky to Franz von Scholl, the major representative of the new military architecture of the Austrian Empire. He applied, for the reconstruction of the magisterial wall, a conservative view of the ancient fortifications, which were reused to the greatest extent possible and minimized masonry work. The urban wall, in its final arrangement, has a development of more than 9 kilometers and occupies almost 100 hectares with its works, towers, washers, ramparts, moats, embankments,[117] to which must be added the works of the external defense system, located in the flat countryside or on the hillside, that is, the 19 existing military forts (of the 31 that had been built), which formed the last and most modern system of city defense.[118]

    • Gates

    Arco dei Gavi: The arch of the Gavi, located along the ancient Via Postumia just outside the Roman city walls, is a very rare case of an honorary and monumental arch for private use in Roman architecture; it was built around the middle of the first century to celebrate the gens Gavia.[119] During the Renaissance this was one of the most highly prized of Verona's antiquities, partly due to the presence of the signature of a Vitruvius, evoking the well-known Roman architect and author of the treatise De architectura. The monument was then described by humanists and antiquarians, reproduced in detail and studied in its proportional ratios and decorations, and finally taken up as a model by architects and painters, such as Palladio, Sangallo, Serlio, Falconetto, Sanmicheli, as well as Bellini and Mantegna.[120] It had great influence on Veronese art in particular, being copied as an overall scheme for the realization of portals, altars, and chapels in the main churches of Verona.[121] The arch no longer stands in its original position as it was demolished by the French Army Corps of Engineers in 1805, however, the numerous reliefs that had previously been produced made it possible for it to be reassembled by anastylosis and restored in 1932, when it was relocated to the small square at the side of Castelvecchio.[122]
  • Porta Borsari: Porta Borsari, in antiquity known by the name Porta Iovia due to the presence of the nearby temple dedicated to Jupiter Lustral,[123] is one of the gates that opened along the Roman walls of Verona. It constituted the main entrance to the Roman city, entering the important Via Postumia on the decumanus maximus, corresponding to today's Corso Porta Borsari and Corso Cavour. The construction of the structure dates back to the second half of the 1st century B.C.,[124] however, over the centuries the gate has undergone several alterations and to date only the agro facade of the imperial age, dating from the first half of the 1st century, has survived. The façade, made of white Valpantena stone, has on the lower floor two fornixes framed in aedicules and set on a high plinth, and above these are two more floors, each with six windows framed by fine decoration.[125]
  • Porta Nuova: Porta Nuova (New Gate) is a monumental gateway erected between 1532 and 1540 to a design by architect Michele Sanmicheli as part of a major renovation of the city's southern walls; it was highly praised by Giorgio Vasari, who asserted that there had never before been another work of greater magnitude or better design.[126] Situated between the bastion of the Holy Trinity and the bastion of the Reformed, it was in this area that Sanmicheli had the opportunity to enact a new urban planning conception of Verona, which had as its focal point precisely Porta Nuova, which gave access to a long straight street, the Via della Porta Nuova, which led directly, through the gates of the Bra, to the Arena and the heart of the city.[127] The present form of the gate is similar to the original Sanmichelian one, although during the Austrian occupation it underwent considerable alterations, particularly in the facade towards the countryside, where the two lateral arches were added.[128] The work recovers some elements from the architecture of ancient Rome, especially from Veronese antiquities: the Arena of Verona, for the use of the Doric order and rustication;[129] the arch of Jupiter Ammon, evoked through the use in the keystone of the central arch of the main facade of the face of Jupiter Ammon, a symbol alluding to power, royalty, and strength;[130] the older facade of Porta Leoni, for the use of the running dog frieze.[131]
  • Porta Palio: Porta Palio is a monumental gateway erected between 1550 and 1561 to a design by architect Michele Sanmicheli. This Sanmichelian gate is the most notable monument born of Renaissance research on the theme of triumph in the city gate, as well as being the most extreme architectural manifestation of the policy of munire et ornare.[132] The gate, inserted in an almost central position in the curtain wall between the bastion of San Bernardino and the bastion of Santo Spirito, has two very different elevations: the elevation towards the countryside takes on a monumental scale and an almost sumptuous approach, despite the fact that the gate was meant to fulfill a military function, so much so that the architect took as a reference the elevation of one of the terraces of the Roman theater in Verona;[133] conversely, the elevation toward the city, articulated as a portico with five arched openings terminated by large projecting keystones and divided between them by pairs of Doric half-columns, is stern, the wall surface not lightened by decoration as in the façade toward the countryside and completely covered, including the half-columns, with rough ashlar. Such a stern rear façade contrasted with such a sumptuous front façade can be explained by the theory of architect and theorist Sebastiano Serlio: the gate was meant to mark the boundary between the city and the countryside, so from within the city it was meant to appear as the work of nature, while from the countryside it was meant to appear as the work of man's hand.[134]
    • Other gates

    Other gates of special significance in Verona include:

    Buildings

    Austrian Arsenal: The Franz Josef I arsenal was built in neo-Romanesque style around the middle of the 19th century by the Austrians, during the years of imperial rule over the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, thus at a time when Verona assumed the role of a strategic military fortress. The complex, located in axis with the Castelvecchio bridge and consequently a short distance from the castle of the same name, fits coherently into the context of the Scaliger fortress, taking on almost the appearance of a medieval castle, with decorative details reminiscent of Romanesque architecture and materials typical of Verona's building style. The arsenal stands on a very large area and has a plan layout similar to that of the Arsenal in Vienna: the layout is organized along axes with large courtyards separating the nine buildings that contained warehouses, storerooms, and workshops surrounded by greenery, all included within a defensive enclosure.[140] [141]
  • Provianda di Santa Marta: The Provianda of Santa Marta is a complex of industrial archaeology located in the Veronetta district, designed in the 19th century by the Austrian Genie Direction in neo-Romanesque style and built in the second half of the same century. The complex was originally intended for the production of bread and biscuits, storage and administration of other livelihoods for the imperial army stationed in northern Italy, while today it houses the departments and library of economics of the University of Verona. The location that was chosen was based on the wide availability of space at this location, the proximity to the Verona Porta Vescovo station and the possibility of a direct connection to it, and the protection provided by the magistral walls.[142] [143]

    • Archaeological sites

    Notable archaeological sites in Verona include:

    See also

    References

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    Bibliography

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