Discover Verona starting from the largest and most spectacular medieval building in town: Castelvecchio.
Castelvecchio represents a strong landmark for locals and a definitely must-see destination for tourists in Verona.
After the Roman Amphitheatre, so called Arena, this is the town’s most impressive and imposing monument: erected in a safe manor in a turbulent period marked by wars and conflicts, then salvaged over the centuries and turned into an arms cache, military academy and barracks, in 1925 its became home to the Museum of Castelvecchio.
It was built on the banks of the Adige by Cangrande II della Scala in 1354 in order to protect the city’s population and also to have a possible escape-route northwards where his Austrian relatives lived.
If you look at it closely, the Ponte Scaligero with its red-brick walls and soaring arches, is asymmetrical and slopes down towards the Adige’s left bank, so as to facilitate a quick “get-away” to the country-side.
Castelvecchio has been demolished, rebuilt and altered a number of times:
During World War II it was damaged by bombing and remained empty for about ten years until 1957, when a radical renovation and reorganisation project started.
The main restoration of the castle, made by the architect Carlo Scarpa and the museum’s director Licisco Magagnato, gave the museum its actual structure: 29 rooms of paintings, sculptures, weapons and more, from 1300 to 1700 AD.
Do not miss the wonderful equestrian statue of Cangrande della Scala that the architect has beautifully displayed in the courtyard of the Castle!
The history of this military complex is intimately linked to the history of the Della Scala family, and therefore intimately linked to the history of the entire city of Verona, which still bears the symbol of a staircase in its emblem.
The works finished in 1964 and returned a museum universally recognised as one of the masterpieces of Italian museography.
The Museum displays important collections of medieval, Renaissance and modern art. One of the largest collections of Italian art, with a gallery of sculptures, a picture gallery and art library open to the public. The museum also has a room with prints, a numismatic room, and the Boggian room, that hosts temporary exhibitions.
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