Description
The Church of Santa Maria Antica is a small Romanesque church in Verona's historic center, in a corner of Piazza dei Signori, next to the Scaliger Tombs. It was the chapel of the Scaligeri, the lords of the city, and you spot it at once by a tomb above the doorway.
That tomb is the sarcophagus of Cangrande I della Scala, the most famous of the Veronese lords, above the side entrance portal. It sits inside a trefoil arch and is topped by the prince's equestrian statue, attributed to Giovanni di Rigino: what you see is a copy, the original is in the Castelvecchio museum.
Right beside it are the Scaliger Tombs, the family's monumental burial place, built in the 1200s and 1300s. They hold the sarcophagi of Mastino I, Alberto I, Bartolomeo I, Cangrande II, Bartolomeo II and the more monumental ones of Mastino II and Cansignorio.
Outside, the church is hidden among the buildings, and the facade is barely visible. More exposed is the north side, in alternating courses of tuff and brick, as in many Romanesque churches in Verona.
Inside it is dim. Three aisles are separated by two rows of five columns with squared capitals, like big cubes with no animal or leaf decoration. The little light there is comes in through the narrow slits of the walls with bands of tuff and brick.
On the high altar is an altarpiece of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, attributed to Antonio Giarola. Of the first building there remain a piece of ciborium walled into the wall and a fragment of mosaic with white and black tesserae.
The church is older than the Scaligeri. It was born between 744 and 745 for a women's monastery founded by two sisters of Germanic origin, Auctonda and Natalia, next to the court of the Lombard kings.
In 1117 an earthquake destroyed the Lombard church. It was rebuilt in the Romanesque style and consecrated on November 11, 1185, by the Patriarch of Aquileia.
In the 1600s the interior filled up with Baroque stucco. Between the 1800s and 1900s a restoration removed it to recover the medieval look: the work was much disputed, because some of the reconstructions may have been arbitrary.
That tomb is the sarcophagus of Cangrande I della Scala, the most famous of the Veronese lords, above the side entrance portal. It sits inside a trefoil arch and is topped by the prince's equestrian statue, attributed to Giovanni di Rigino: what you see is a copy, the original is in the Castelvecchio museum.
Right beside it are the Scaliger Tombs, the family's monumental burial place, built in the 1200s and 1300s. They hold the sarcophagi of Mastino I, Alberto I, Bartolomeo I, Cangrande II, Bartolomeo II and the more monumental ones of Mastino II and Cansignorio.
Outside, the church is hidden among the buildings, and the facade is barely visible. More exposed is the north side, in alternating courses of tuff and brick, as in many Romanesque churches in Verona.
Inside it is dim. Three aisles are separated by two rows of five columns with squared capitals, like big cubes with no animal or leaf decoration. The little light there is comes in through the narrow slits of the walls with bands of tuff and brick.
On the high altar is an altarpiece of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, attributed to Antonio Giarola. Of the first building there remain a piece of ciborium walled into the wall and a fragment of mosaic with white and black tesserae.
The church is older than the Scaligeri. It was born between 744 and 745 for a women's monastery founded by two sisters of Germanic origin, Auctonda and Natalia, next to the court of the Lombard kings.
In 1117 an earthquake destroyed the Lombard church. It was rebuilt in the Romanesque style and consecrated on November 11, 1185, by the Patriarch of Aquileia.
In the 1600s the interior filled up with Baroque stucco. Between the 1800s and 1900s a restoration removed it to recover the medieval look: the work was much disputed, because some of the reconstructions may have been arbitrary.