VERONA has long haunted the English imagination. The city lies on the banks of the Adige as it cuts in a reversed S downwards to the plain. On the ancient route from Turin to Aquileia and from the Brenner Pass to the south, the Roman city of Claudia Augusta was rich enough to boast a substantial amphitheatre, the Arena. Verona retained her eminence, as residence in turn of the kings of the Ostrogoths and the Lungobards. Later, as a free commune, she was inevitably caught up in the struggles of successive emperors. The signoria of the Scaligeri, which lasted from 1260 until 1387, was a period of immense prosperity. Verona’s independence ended in 1405 when she passed to Venice. But political dependence did not inhibit Verona’s artistic individuality. The Gothic fantasies created for the Scaligeri were succeeded under Venetian rule by the sinuous line of Stefano da Zevio and the early Renaissance naturalism of Pisanello. In the sixteenth century Verona supported one great architect, Michele Sanmicheli, and boasted a school of painters, the most spirited of whom, Paolo Caliari, il Veronese, became in effect a Venetian. The last two centuries of Venetian rule were less productive, although the buildings of the neoclassicist Luigi Trezza merit more attention than they have received. After the fall of Bonaparte Verona became a stronghold of the Quadrilateral, the series of fortresses that secured Austrian rule until 1866.
The old road from the west keeps to the flank of southern shore of Lake Garda. This reaches the sixteenth-century walls at the Porta San Zeno, one of the simpler of the series of gates and bastions designed by Sanmicheli. A little beyond is the piazza dominated by the monumental Romanesque façade and campanile of the Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore. Below the rose window by Maestro Briolato is the main portal of c.1138 by the sculptor Niccolò, its celebrated bronze doors with panels illustrating biblical scenes and the life of Saint Zeno. These were begun in the twelfth century and, like so much later Veronese art, reveal northern influence. The interior of the basilica is equally impressive, restrained to the point of austerity. On the high altar is Mantegna’s majestic triptych of the Madonna and Child between groups of four saints, shorn alas by the French of its predella. Painted in 1457–9, this was the most influential north Italian altarpiece of its generation.
The road continues to the river and the spectacular thirteenth-century Castelvecchio which, with the fortified Ponte Scaligero of 1354, commanded the western approach to the medieval town. The castle contains a distinguished picture collection. At the eastern corner of the Castelvecchio is the reconstructed Arch of the Gavi, built late in the first century ad of the local white stone. The wide Corso Cavour that runs north-east to the heart of the city follows its Roman predecessor. This is flanked by a notable series of palaces, including on the right Trezza’s Palazzo Balladoro and two buildings by Sanmicheli: the Palazzo Canosa (1530–37) on the left, its back to the river, and the splendid Palazzo Bevilacqua to the right. Ahead is the Roman Porta dei Bursari. A sharp turn to the right, into the Via Oberdan, leads to the great monument of Roman Verona, the spectacular first-century AD Arena, which is exceeded in size only by the Colosseum in Rome and the amphitheatre at Capua.
The medieval city overlies its Roman predecessor. From the Porta dei Borsari, the line of the decumanus maximus is followed by the Corso Porta Borsari and the Corsa Sant’Anastasia. The successor of the forum is the Piazza delle Erbe, surrounded by medieval houses. The Arco della Costa on the north-east side leads to the Piazza dei Signori. This is in effect a courtyard surrounded by civic buildings, the most appealing of which is the late fifteenth-century Loggia del Consiglio. Opposite is the Volta della Tortura, through which, by walking round the Palazzo dei Giudici on the left, you come to the most celebrated monuments of medieval Verona, the tombs of the Scaligeri. Cangrande I della Scala, who died in 1329, followed by Mastio and Cansignorio, who died respectively in 1351 and 1370, were buried in prodigiously elaborate free-standing structures that resemble contemporary reliquaries. In these, Veronese Gothic architecture and sculpture reached its apogee.
Not far to the south of the Piazza delle Erbe is San Fermo. The numerous frescoes in the church include, on the left wall, Pisanello’s Annunciation. In the crypt are some of the best-preserved Romanesque murals in the Veneto, including, on one of the piers, a forceful Baptism.
A short walk north-east of the piazza is Sant’Anastasia, perhaps the most impressive of Veronese Gothic churches. Built in brick by the Dominicans, this was begun in 1290. The fine main door is of the following century. Above the arch of the chapel to the right of the presbytery is the celebrated fresco of Saint George by Pisanello which, with the San Fermo Annunciation, is among the few extant monumental works by the artist. The Piazza Sant’Anastasia is linked by the Via Duomo to the Duomo, a massive and imposing building, oddly unlovable for all the magnificence of the decoration of the façade by Maestro Niccolò and the scale of the Romanesque apse.
San Fermo, crypt: Veronese School, Baptism, fresco, 13th century.
Bellotto’s celebrated views of Verona remind us how little much of the city has changed, although both the beautiful partly Roman Ponte Pietra and the Ponte Navi had to be reconstructed after the last world war. While the great monuments of the medieval city are concentrated in the peninsula so effectively defended by the Adige, there is much of interest on the opposite bank. One might begin just within the walls near the earliest of Sanmicheli’s gates, the Porta San Giorgio, with the fine Renaissance church of San Giorgio in Braida. The Martyrdom of Saint George on the high altar is a dramatic masterpiece by Veronese. There are also excellent altarpieces by Girolamo dai Libri, the most accomplished local painter of the turn of the fifteenth century, and by Moretto. Further down the left bank of the Adige as it curves to the south is the Roman theatre, built against the hillside. Beyond is Santa Maria in Organo, with an elaborate façade by Sanmicheli and distinguished marquetry choir stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona. The Via Santa Maria in Organo continues as the Via Giusti, dominated by the Palazzo Giusti del Giardino, known thus for the terraced garden with its celebrated view over the city.
The Ponte Pietra.