Churches of Verona

However, the building has undergone some transformations over time that do not allow it to be admired in its original appearance, particularly because of the addition of some spaces in the 14th century, when it became the funerary chapel of the Bevilacqua family and assumed a square floor plan; nevertheless, the church still retains its early Christian essence.

[1] Numerous churches and monasteries were built in Lombard and Frankish times, buildings mostly known from two important records from that period: the Versus de Verona, a composition in rhythmic prose datable to the reign of Pepin, and the Raterian Iconography, a map that Bishop Ratherius had made around the middle of the 10th century.

[15] In an isolated position (when it was built), on the other hand, is the church of the Holy Trinity in Monte Oliveto, a picturesque corner of the city set on a small rise that gives its name to the building, which was commissioned by the Vallombrosian congregation.

[16] The highest example of Veronese Romanesque, however, is represented by the basilica of San Zeno, a building that adequately closes the chapter on this era, a mature expression anticipating some Gothic motifs, whose delicate lexicon refers to the contemporary Emilian style rather than to the austere one that had marked architecture in the city up to that time.

It was built throughout the 12th century, although its origins are earlier and hark back to the presence of the abbey of San Zeno, which was so influential that it caused the emergence of the village of the same name outside Verona's Roman and communal walls.

It is interrupted by a band of biforas running the length of it, punctuated by a series of pilasters, while in the center opens the Wheel of Fortune, that is, the rose window by master Brioloto de Balneo.

[18] The Veronese Gothic style is thus the same whether it is used for religious or civil construction: masonry surfaces undergo further decorative simplification, however, being enriched with flatly carved ferrules and decorative arches; brick becomes an almost exclusive material of masonry, giving a warm color to the buildings that characterize the city to this day; openings become larger in size, with round arches or tall biforas and monoforas that in height occupy the entire wall; roofs are almost always wooden trusses over wide spaces, usually not divided into bays; verticalism is further accentuated, even in civic architecture; spires and pinnacles are frequently used above the eave line.

[19] The Dominican basilica of St. Anastasia was the most far-reaching Gothic achievement in Verona, a fundamental reference point on which the building of other Veronese churches would be based, not only because of the renovations made to the plan, but also and especially because of the use of brick masonry and the new type of bell tower adopted.

The bell tower, also made of brick, introduces a new typology to the city that was very popular: verticality is emphasized by angular and intermediate pilasters that run throughout the shaft, divided into orders by elegant string-course cornices, covered no longer with the characteristic Romanesque conical pine cone but with a ribbed spire.

[20] Along St. Anastasia Square, moreover, stands, as if it were a stage backdrop, the church of St. Peter Martyr; a simple brick structure punctuated by pilasters and crowned with Lombard bands and spires, while the interior, with a single hall, is divided into two large, airy bays.

[21] Another religious order that took on great importance in the same years was that of the Servites, placed under the direct protectorate of the Lords of Verona, from whom they obtained numerous privileges and donations, including the land on which the church of Santa Maria della Scala would later be built, which was named after the Veronese princes.

Externally, the church still presents its simple Gothic terracotta guise, with a gabled facade punctuated by two low pilasters and crowned by small arches, and on which only later were added a portal and two biforas with a now Renaissance style; finally, also on the outside, the apsidal area and the bell tower are strikingly reminiscent of the Santa Anastasia example.

The interior, on the other hand, was transformed and renovated in the 18th century so that it no longer presents the original features, except for the Spolverini Dal Verme chapel, equipped with a very rich decorative structure, with pilasters and ogives in the apsidal basin.

Precisely because of the continuing disputes between the Benedictines and the Franciscans, work was delayed and did not begin until the 14th century, so the transformations implemented were definitely under the influence of a mature Gothic style, which, however, avoided the use of architectural elements that were too complex or articulated.

The works brought about numerous changes: for example, the space was reduced to a single nave in order to create an airy and solemn environment, which is why the perimeter walls were also raised and the hall covered by a characteristic and elegant wooden false ceiling in the form of an inverted ship's keel, in the Venetian style.

[34] They did not limit themselves to renovating the church, but also committed themselves to the adjoining monastery, where it is still possible to admire a fine cloister with red Verona marble columns and Renaissance capitals, crowned at the top by a terracotta frieze still in the Gothic style.

[39] Also in the church of San Giorgio in Braida Sanmicheli intervened in two moments: first in 1540 to graft the imposing dome onto the now-complete building, and later in the design of the bell tower, again assisted by the architect Borelli and also in this case left unfinished.

Completed in 1592 only in the lower part, the Veronese master devised a monumental marble facade inspired by the Malatesta temple in Rimini, with three large semicircular arches separated by columns and massive pilasters.

[48] The chapel shows itself as the first monument of a new style, by then of the 17th century, whose completion with the addition of frescoes, canvases, statues and colored marble to form a unified work of art, had to take several more years.

[49] In addition, Cardinal and Bishop Valier introduced the Jesuits to Verona in 1577, who the following year already managed to open schools in some buildings along Via Cappello, obtained through a decree later confirmed in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII.

In 1591 they finally managed to build their temple, the church of San Sebastiano, however in 1606 they were forced to leave Verona because of an interdict that affected the Republic of Venice, and they could only return in 1656, when they completed the construction of the complex.

This is one of the few examples of the Veronese Baroque period, the design of which is due to the architect Lelio Pellesina and the direction of the work to his son Vincenzo; it traces the Counter-Reformation scheme of a single nave with a wide transept and side chapels; however, even in this work, perhaps also due to the failure to build the dome that would have given it more breadth and theatricality, an architectural and decorative style related to classical schemes is shown, with an interior space elegantly decorated by Corinthian pilasters and seventeen niches in the walls where various statues find their place, except in the design of the high altar by Guarino Guarini, an object endowed with a powerful Baroque soul characterized by a tabernacle moved and articulated by a superimposition of columns in which the frontal view is substantially annulled.

The building, designed by Giuseppe Pozzo, brother of the more famous architect Andrea, has a central and more precisely octagonal plan, with the hall covered by a flat ceiling supported by a strongly projecting corbelled cornice.

The churchyard is accessed through an elaborate entrance portal consisting of coupled columns on whose shafts draperies are tied, according to the style of the time, and on which the tympanum stands; along the inner elevation of the enclosure are several niches that may have housed statues, although there is no evidence of their past presence.

The former was built between 1618 and 1621, designed as a parallelepiped structure surmounted by a windowed cylinder, the interior of which is finely decorated with mannerist stuccoes reminiscent of those in the dome of the church of the Inviolata in Riva del Garda and the basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Brescia.

In addition to this, several episodes led to the loss of a good part of these eighteenth-century transformations: the Napoleonic suppressions, the aerial bombardments of World War II, and some speculative interventions in the immediate postwar period, such as the demolition of the oratory of San Giacomo Maggiore, by Alessandro Pompei, in 1956.

Great efforts in this area were made by Alessandro Pompei, Maffei's friend and pupil, who sharply criticized Baroque poetics and in 1735 published Michel Sanmicheli's treatise Li cinque ordini d'architettura civile, anticipating the themes of neoclassical architecture.

The architects Adriano Cristofali, Girolamo Del Pozzo, Luigi Trezza and, in the next century, Bartolomeo Giuliari, Giuseppe Barbieri and Francesco Ronzani followed this trend, especially in civil construction.

The interior was punctuated by lesenes of the Ionic order on which the entablature was set, resolved in the corner joints; finally, the space was covered by a cross-vaulted ceiling and four large arches overlying the building's axes.

[63] Other religious buildings built by Cristofali included: the church of Santa Lucia, facing along Stradone Porta Palio, built between 1743 and 1765 but of which only the façade remains, albeit altered;[64] the church of San Tomio, renovated by him around 1748 but transformed into a theater by Luigi Trezza after the Napoleonic suppressions, then transformed back into a place of worship in 1836 although now altered (however, the façade made by Montanari is preserved perfectly intact);[65] the now lost dormitory of the monastery of San Salvatore in Corte Regia, admired by contemporaries and considered unparalleled in all of Italy.