The monuments of Verona are a vast number of architecturally, archaeologically, historically, and artistically significant cultural assets that characterize the city of Verona. Due to 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
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. Where the Cathedral stands today, public baths and a temple dedicated to Minerva probably stood in Roman times.Notiziario della Banca Popolare di Verona, Verona, 1991, n. 2. The first basilica was built in the area now occupied by the church of St. Helen. 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 second building collapsed toward the end of the 8th century due to a fire. 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. 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 ZenoThe 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.. 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.. The building underwent several reconstructions due to the Hungarian invasions. and the earthquake of 1117,. 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 stonemason 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,. 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.. 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.. Work continued until the end of the 16th century, never reaching completion of the façade.. 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..
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.. 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, 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.. 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: Church of San Bernardino, a 15th-century building that was part of a Franciscan convent. In particular, the Pellegrini Chapel, designed by the famous Veronese architect Michele Sanmicheli in the 16th century, occupies a fundamental place in the history of Italian architecture;. Church of St. Euphemia, the foundation of which is due to the Scaligeri.. The vast interiors contain valuable works by several painters of the Veronese school, including: Giovan Francesco Caroto, Francesco Torbido, il Moretto, Dionisio Battaglia, Battista del Moro, Paolo Farinati, Jacopo Ligozzi, Bernardino India, Domenico and Felice Brusasorzi;. Church of San Giorgio in Braida, a Renaissance building admired by Scipione Maffei and Goethe for the numerous works of art housed there, particularly Tintoretto's Baptism of Christ placed above the main door, the two huge canvases placed near the chancel, namely the Multiplication of the Loaves and The Manna in the Desert by Paolo Farinati and Domenico Brusasorzi respectively, and the Martyrdom of St. George, a 1564 work by Paolo Veronese, hanging in the apse basin; Church of San Giovanni in Foro is a church building that, as its name suggests, bordered directly on the Verona Forum, and for the same reason in the past it also had the title of basilica. On the exterior is a marble triptych with an inscription commemorating the fire that did serious damage to the town and destroyed the church in 1172, as well as a small Renaissance masterpiece, the entrance portal carved by Gerolamo Giolfino and with the niche frescoed by Nicola Giolfino;Notiziario della Banca Popolare di Verona, Verona, 1995, n. 1. Church of San Giovanni in Valle, which was built on the site of a pagan necropolis and a Roman temple,. is one of the oldest churches in Verona and a masterpiece of Verona's mature Romanesque style.. In the crypt, next to the high altar, are kept two sarcophagi of great value: one dating from the fourth century has a bas-relief sculpture on three sides in two overlapping orders with stories from the Old and New Testaments narrated, and the other, from the second or third century, is a strigilated sarcophagus from the pagan period with two spouses in a shell in the center, above a rural scene and with two figures of philosophers later transformed into Christian saints on either side;. Church of San Lorenzo, which was built in the 5th century between the Via Postumia and the Adige River, perfectly oriented according to the road layout of Roman Verona, despite undergoing major transformations in the 12th century following the disastrous earthquake that struck Verona. The façade is characterized by two large circular scalar towers placed on either side of a hanging prothyrum: these, a rare example of Norman architecture in northern Italy, allowed access to the large tribunes placed above the aisles; Church of Santa Maria Antica, consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Aquileia, was the private chapel of the Scaligeri, Lords of Verona, who built the Scaliger Tombs, or the family cemetery, to the side. The entrance door is surmounted by the tomb and statue of Cangrande I della Scala, an enlightened and respected ruler, with whom the city rediscovered a new period of splendor and importance, so much so that Dante dedicated the entire cantica of Paradise in the Divine Comedy to him; Church of Santa Maria in Organo, characterized by a majestic unfinished façade: the lower part in white marble is the work of the famous Renaissance architect Michele Sanmicheli, while the upper part in rows of terracotta and tuff still presents its ancient Romanesque-Gothic appearance. Particularly refined are the inlays in the wooden choir and on the sacristy cupboards, made in the late 15th and early 16th centuries by Fra Giovanni da Verona, where urban landscapes, allegories, still lifes and various objects are depicted; Church of Saints Nazaro and Celso, a building made in a mixture of Gothic style and Renaissance architecture. In the church is the Chapel of St. Blaise, completed in 1508 to house the relics of the martyrs St. Blaise and St. Juliana, which houses the masterpieces of some of the most important Veronese painters of the 16th century, notably Giovanni Maria Falconetto, Bartolomeo Montagna and Girolamo dai Libri;. Church of Saints Siro and Libera, a small church founded in the 10th century among the ruins of Verona's ancient Roman theater. The building underwent some transformations during the 14th century, when side chapels were added and the choir was built, while the two-branched staircase for access to the building was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries; Church of St. Stephen, a church building of very ancient origins; despite some remodeling over the centuries, part of the structure remains the one built around the fifth century, making it an almost unique example of early Christian architecture in Verona.. Also inside is the Varalli Chapel, one of the most flourishing examples of Baroque architecture in the Verona area;. Church of Saints Teuteria and Tosca, partly incorporated into the Church of the Holy Apostles, is a Greek cross-shaped shrine dating back to the 5th century: this makes it the oldest church in the Veneto region. It was built on the side of the Via Postumia, probably near the Christian cemetery where the two saints had been buried; Church of San Tomaso Cantuariense, which houses numerous works of art that were made by famous painters of the Veronese school, including canvases by Paolo Farinati, Girolamo dai Libri, Alessandro Turchi and Antonio Balestra. Also inside is a historic Baroque pipe organ that was played by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on January 7, 1770, during one of his trips to Italy, and he left his initials engraved on the case with a penknife, which are still visible today;.