Description
Piazza San Zeno is the square that opens in front of the basilica of the same name, in the San Zeno district, just outside the center of Verona. Here Veronese Romanesque can be seen all at once: a great church, a tower and an even older little church.
The star is the Basilica of San Zeno, in Lombard Romanesque. Look closely at the portal with its bronze panels and the great rose window on the facade, called the "Wheel of Fortune," the work of the stonecutter Brioloto de Balneo.
Inside is a masterpiece by Andrea Mantegna, the San Zeno altarpiece. The building was rebuilt at the beginning of the ninth century and then reconstructed several times after the Hungarian invasions and the earthquake of 1117: the medieval layout, however, has remained substantially the same.
Next to it rises the abbey tower, mentioned in two documents of 1169 and raised in two phases: you can tell from the bricks, of different quality in the lower and upper parts. Leaning against it are the remains of the fourteenth-century Abbot's Palace, partly demolished in the early 1800s.
It was reserved for the abbot and for the most prestigious guests: until the 1300s the abbey served as a hotel for the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Less conspicuous is the church of San Procolo, built in the fifth century to house the remains of Verona's fourth bishop, Proculus. It has an eleventh-century crypt, enlarged after the earthquake of 1117, and a Romanesque facade.
Before all these churches, there were tombs here. The area lay outside the Roman city, along the Via Gallica that led to Brescia and Milan, and it was the most important of Verona's necropolises. According to tradition, Veronese Christianity was born right here: the city's first bishops were buried in this area.
Between the basilica and San Procolo a churchyard thus formed, and houses sprang up around it, probably rented at first to the workers of the basilica's building site. A small satellite village grew up, the "burgus Sancti Zenonis," already mentioned in a document of 813.
The village came inside the city walls only in the 1300s, with the Scaliger wall. The layout of the square, on the other hand, has stayed almost the same for centuries: at the center there are still the two churches.
The star is the Basilica of San Zeno, in Lombard Romanesque. Look closely at the portal with its bronze panels and the great rose window on the facade, called the "Wheel of Fortune," the work of the stonecutter Brioloto de Balneo.
Inside is a masterpiece by Andrea Mantegna, the San Zeno altarpiece. The building was rebuilt at the beginning of the ninth century and then reconstructed several times after the Hungarian invasions and the earthquake of 1117: the medieval layout, however, has remained substantially the same.
Next to it rises the abbey tower, mentioned in two documents of 1169 and raised in two phases: you can tell from the bricks, of different quality in the lower and upper parts. Leaning against it are the remains of the fourteenth-century Abbot's Palace, partly demolished in the early 1800s.
It was reserved for the abbot and for the most prestigious guests: until the 1300s the abbey served as a hotel for the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Less conspicuous is the church of San Procolo, built in the fifth century to house the remains of Verona's fourth bishop, Proculus. It has an eleventh-century crypt, enlarged after the earthquake of 1117, and a Romanesque facade.
Before all these churches, there were tombs here. The area lay outside the Roman city, along the Via Gallica that led to Brescia and Milan, and it was the most important of Verona's necropolises. According to tradition, Veronese Christianity was born right here: the city's first bishops were buried in this area.
Between the basilica and San Procolo a churchyard thus formed, and houses sprang up around it, probably rented at first to the workers of the basilica's building site. A small satellite village grew up, the "burgus Sancti Zenonis," already mentioned in a document of 813.
The village came inside the city walls only in the 1300s, with the Scaliger wall. The layout of the square, on the other hand, has stayed almost the same for centuries: at the center there are still the two churches.