The Cathedral of Verona, whose official name is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, but also known as the Cathedral of Santa Maria Matricolare, after the ancient early Christian church, is the main place of Catholic worship in the city of Verona. mother church of the Italian diocese of the same name and a national monument. It is part of an articulated architectural complex that also includes the Palazzo del Vescovado, the monastery of the canons, the library of the chapter, the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte and the church of Sant'Elena, the latter two connected to the cathedral by the portico of Santa Maria Matricolare.
At the beginning of the fourth century, a more intense phase of the
Christianization of Verona began, and consequently a reorganization of
the site where the cathedral complex still stands. So, in the first half
of the century, the first religious building in the city was built, the
so-called "Church A", which, possibly, took the place of the temple
dedicated to Minerva and public baths: this is a church of 16.9 x 37.5
meters with three naves, with one apse and presbytery raised and
isolated from the naves by barriers still partly visible under the
church of Sant'Elena; this building was located in the Roman road
system, on the third left citrate cardo. In the second half of the same
century, probably during the time of the bishopric of San Zeno, the
small basilica was equipped with hypocaustic heating, for which the
floor was raised and decorated with exquisite mosaics.
Already at
this time there must have been a baptistery, probably located in
accordance with the current baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, as well
as other additions, including the bishop's residence, the Schola
Sacerdotum and the Scriptorium, the presence of which has been
established since 517 but which , probably could have existed since the
4th century. In addition, it has been suggested that there was a second
twin church located south of church A, i.e. right on the site where the
cathedral stands today: therefore, it could be a paleo-Christian "double
cathedral" complex, the existence of which was documented in Lyon and
Geneva.
However, already in the second half of the fifth century,
a second basilica larger than the previous one was built, simply called
"church B", the archaeological remains of which remain in the monastery
of the canons and still in the church of Sant. 'Elena; the construction
of this second building included the partial demolition of the previous
basilica, Church A, the surviving part of which was divided into rooms
and used for other purposes. The new building, measuring 29.2 x 72.8
meters, still had three naves with one central apse, but was equipped
with a vestibule located in the place where the chapter's library stands
today, possibly preceded by a quadriportic. This church also had a floor
richly decorated with mosaics, and was characterized by a raised
presbytery area, from which, however, began the solea, a narrow cordoned
passage descending from the podium of the presbytery along the central
nave. Two semi-circular structures were added to the solea in the first
half of the 6th century, which is probably due to the renewal of the
Christian ritual.
Between the end of the eighth and the beginning
of the ninth century, a new cathedral was built right on the spot where
it still stands today: its transfer from Church B to the new church
dedicated to Santa Maria Matricolara was planned and started by Bishop
Annon. , who was the first Bishop of Verona to be buried in the new
cathedral and was imprisoned by his successor Ratoldo. The abandonment
of church B is probably related to the great fire mentioned in a
document of 806 that engulfed the episcopal complex at the end of the
8th century. and could have caused the collapse of the early Christian
basilica. However, a new church was built on what was left of an ancient
basilica, originally dedicated to Saints George and Zeno and today known
as the Church of Sant'Elena, commissioned by the Archdeacon Pacifico and
consecrated between 842 and 847 by the Patriarch of Aquileia. Andrea.
The church was renovated in the first half of the 9th century by
order of Bishop Ratoldo and Archdeacon Pacifico. In the same period, the
premises for the clergy were reorganized, in particular the schola
sacerdotum, xenodochium, also called the "Hospital of Santa Maria al
Domo", the monastery of the canons and the representative rooms.
Almost nothing remains of the building (or reconstruction) of the 9th
century, as the city of Verona was hit by a catastrophic earthquake in
1117, which also caused serious damage to the cathedral complex,
followed by a rebuilding in Romanesque forms. the various buildings that
made it up. However, the structure of the complex established by Ratoldo
and Pacifico remained practically unchanged: the canonical monastery,
probably already in its present form, is mentioned in documents starting
from 1123; the reconstruction of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in
Fonte, commissioned by Bishop Bernardo, also dates from 1123; the
reconstruction of Sant'Elena always took place in the same years when it
was consecrated in 1140 by Patriarch Pellegrino of Aquileia.
The
cathedral was rebuilt, also in the Romanesque style, starting in 1120.
The author of the work is unknown, but some masters are known, in
particular, Niccolo, who created the entrance portal with a double
rubbing, identified thanks to the inscription present on the outer
crowning of the lower protirum (“Arteficem gnarum qui sculpserit hec
Nicolaum hunc cuncurrentes laudant per secula gentes”), and a certain
master Pelegrina, whose signature is engraved on the arch depicting
Christ between Saints Peter and Paul, now in the Castelvecchio Museum,
but whose exact role is unknown. The new cathedral was consecrated on
September 13, 1187 by Pope Urban III.
This Romanesque building,
the planimetric layout of which has survived almost unchanged to this
day, is still readable even on the wall facings, in the preserved
sculptural frames and in the two porticos, main and side, despite the
numerous transformations undertaken in the place in subsequent
centuries.
The church had a plan with three naves, probably
separated by two rows of arches placed on pillars, alternating with
columns, with a deep central apse and two minor side apses obtained in
the thickness of the wall; the building had a lower height than the
current one, and the roof was supposed to have an open beam. Moreover,
the original height of the naves is easy to understand thanks to the
preserved remains of the cornice both on the facade and on the side
facades: the height of the facade is especially important, since two
fragments of a cornice with hanging arches located between triangular
buttresses and Gothic multi-leaf windows testify to the maximum height
of the side aisles, and at two corners of the main façade, other
fragments of cornices indicate their minimum height; for the central
nave, the minimum height is assumed by the height of the triangular
buttresses dividing the facade into three parts, and it is not possible
to determine the ridge of the roof due to subsequent transformations.
The side entrance portal belongs to this first building, the main work
of which was carried out mainly between the 20s and 30s, and although it
was built in the second phase, perhaps around 1139, the porch protecting
the main entrance, the work of the aforementioned Niccolo.
The first renovation project may have been dated to the 14th century
and appears to have involved an extension of the building, which was to
increase in size and contain five naves, however new building sites did
not begin until the 15th century. Among the interventions carried out in
the fifteenth century were: the raising of the naves, which thus reached
their present height; replacement of colonnades with eight strong beam
pillars supporting lancet arches; the creation of cross vaults to cover
the interior; finally, the opening of the side chapels, including the
Memo and the larger chapel of the Madonna del Popolo. In particular, the
connected columns and foliated capitals, so obviously Gothic, seem to
follow a design inspired in some way by that of the fourteenth century,
which was never begun, or at any rate changed in size; these very
peculiar elements, among other things, were taken as a model by the
builders of the Milan Cathedral, who had the opportunity to personally
visit the building.
Work continued until the end of the 16th
century, the time of further transformations. The Bishopric of Gian
Matteo Giberti had to furnish the presbytery, which was redesigned from
a functional point of view, with the backlog of the choir and altar, and
from a decorative point of view: in fact, the fresco decoration of the
cathedral. the apse basin and vault date from 1534; a triumphal arch
with a cycle of Mary scenes, the work of the Renaissance artist
Francesco Torbido, who used cartoons by Giulio Romano commissioned by
the bishop himself; around the same year, the reconstruction of the
floor of the church, begun in 1527, was completed, which led to the
elimination of the difference in height between the presbytery and the
plebeian area, characteristic of the Romanesque church.
A little
later, and completed in 1550, the choir of the presbytery square, built
according to the project of the famous architect Michele Sanmicheli;
between 1575 and 1579 his cousin Bernardino Brugnoli, on the other hand,
designed the rise of the bell tower, which used as its base a
pre-existing Romanesque bell tower; finally, in 1587, the facade was
completed, which took its final form in the time of the Bishop of
Verona, Agostino Vallera, whose coat of arms is placed at the top. On
the other hand, the internal portal with the clock, built on the
counterfacade of the church, belongs to his nephew Alberto Valler.
The last important works date back to the end of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th century: in 1880 the floor was redone at the
direction of Bishop Luigi di Canossa, and between 1913 and 1931 a
further raising of the bell was carried out. tower designed by the
architect Ettore Fagiuoli, which, however, was not completed. These
construction sites have been followed by mostly conservative restoration
and structural strengthening activities, most significant between 1979
and 1987, 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2015.
The protruding facade of the church is three-part with two buttresses
of triangular section. In the central sector there is a splayed entrance
portal, decorated with sculptures depicting saints and two paladins
Orlando and Uliviero, closed on top with a lunette decorated with
polychrome reliefs depicting the Madonna and Child on the throne; the
portal is protected by a double rubbing with twisted columns supported
by two griffins, a valuable work by the master Niccolò built around
1139. In addition, there are three medallions on the architrave, on
which allegories of theological virtues are carved. Still in the central
sector, but higher, there is a rose window that illuminates the central
nave and the coat of arms of Cardinal and Bishop Agostino Vallera, who
in 1587 commissioned the last works related to the façade; however, the
two side sectors have two tall Gothic windows with mullions.
The
side facades, divided by height into two orders, corresponding to the
division of the inner aisles, are characterized by masonry with
alternating rows of hewn tuff and bricks, as well as the presence of
buttresses with turrets at the top. Two orders are also surmounted by a
stucco molding of the cornice; however, the volumes of the side chapels
protrude in the lower one, while the round eyes in the upper one
illuminate the central nave. The east façade, corresponding to the area
occupied internally by the presbytery, is made entirely of blocks of
tuff and limestone, and is characterized by the looming volume of a
semi-cylindrical apse, marked by a dense row of pilasters supporting a
cornice at the top, with a frieze decorated in bas-relief.
An imposing bell tower rises from the south side of the church: the
base is a massive work of the Romanesque era, erected between the 12th
and 13th centuries, with dimensions unparalleled in any other Verona
tower, measuring 11 sides 10 meters and a masonry thickness of 3.10
meters; it bears the same massive renaissance shaft in Veronese ammonite
marble, originally designed by the famous architect Michele Sanmicheli,
later modified by his nephew Bernardino Brugnoli; at the top, closing
the tower, is the bell tower, built in 1925 according to the design of
Ettore Fagiuoli, who interpreted the San Michelian language. It has an
octagonal plan and rests on a base surmounted by a balustrade and corner
obelisks, and in turn surmounted by a drum on which a roof was to be
built, envisaged by Fagiuoli's project, but never built for economic
reasons. The tower reaches 75 meters, the second tallest in the city
after the Lamberti tower, at 83 meters, but which would have been
surpassed by the construction of the overhang, about 15-20 meters.
The tower has ten bells tuned to the descending A2 scale, mostly
cast by the Veronese Cavadini family in 1931: with the exception of a
large bell made by the De Poli foundry in Vittorio Veneto in 2003 to
replace the previous one, which was remade in 1934 again Cavadini due to
a manufacturing defect that irreparably cracked in 2000, and a small
bell that was melted down at the Grassmayr foundry in Innsbruck in 2014
and added to the complex. The bells are beaten by hand by a team of
twenty players, in accordance with the Veronese Bell Concerto technique.
The tower also contains, at the height of the roof of the cathedral, the
so-called "canons' bell", thrown by hand, with the note F # 4 decreasing
and out of harmony, cast by the master Jacobus of Verona in 1384. ,
while the second bell called "Mezzana", cast in 1358 by magisters
Vivencus and Victor, part together with the bell of the canons of the
original bell complex, is instead in the Museum of Castelvecchio.
The plan of the building is a rectangular hall, divided into three
naves by two rows of slightly lancet arches, each set on four mighty
columns of red Veronese marble; the naves are divided into five bays,
the central one extending towards the presbytery, creating a prominent
longitudinal space. The ancient presbytery, raised by three steps, is
protected by an elegant tornacore with semi-circular building, designed
by Michele Sanmicheli, and consisting of a high base, on which are
mounted Ionic columns supporting cast trapezoids, which, in accordance
with the columns, are surmounted by candelabra; the old presbytery ends
in a semicircular apse of the choir, and the new presbytery occupies the
penultimate bay of the main nave. If the spans of the naves are covered
by stone cross vaults with diagonal ribs and punctuated by lancet
arches, both are red Verona, the presbytery is instead barrel-vaulted
and the choir stalls are surmounted by a hemispherical cap, both
decorated at the beginning of the sixteenth century. century by
Francesco Torbido from preparatory drawings by Giulio Romano, who
created an impressive painting cycle depicting biblical scenes and
characters inserted into a vast painted classical architecture.
On the sides of the aisles are eight small altars, four on each side,
inserted into the emerging chapels. Along the right aisle are: the
chapel of Dionysius; Chapel of Calcasoli the chapel of Emilia, dedicated
to the Transfiguration of Christ; the chapel of the Holy Communion, also
known as the chapel of Memo, from which you can get to the underground
crypt of the bishops of Verona. Instead, along the left aisle are: the
chapel of Kartolari-Nikesola with the altar of the Assumption; the
chapel of Abbazio Lazzari, dedicated to the Most Holy Body of Jesus
Christ; the chapel of Cartolari, dedicated to San Michele Arcangelo;
Chapel of the Madonna del Popolo, also known as the Malaspina Chapel. On
either side of the triumphal arch, which gives access to the presbytery,
there are two other chapels: the Mazzanti Chapel, dedicated to Saints
Francis and Agatha, on the right, and the Maffei Chapel on the left.
right pass
The first chapel in the right aisle is the Dionisi
Chapel, built between 1481 and 1484 by Canon Paolo Dionisi and dedicated
to Saints Peter and Paul. From the original building, the outer arch, on
which stands the Redeemer, and under it the two saints Peter and Paul,
as well as the Renaissance frescoes framing the chapel, has been
preserved. The altarpiece is a 1711 work by the Verona school painter
Antonio Balestra depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Paul
and Anthony of Padua.
After that is the Calcasoli Chapel, built
by Bernardino Calcasoli between 1503 and 1504. It is characterized by a
monumental fresco by Falconetto, dated 1503, which surrounds a group of
paintings found inside the altar of the chapel, including Saints Rocco
and Sebastiano, on the left, Antonio and Bartolomeo on the right, and
"Deposition" at the top, by Nicolo Giolfino, and in the center, a
painting by Liberale da Verona depicting the Adoration of the Magi.
The third chapel is Emily, built around 1504 by the eponymous noble
family from Verona. Above the altar is the Transfiguration of Christ by
the Verona artist Giambettino Cignaroli. There are also remains of a
triptych by Francesco Morone depicting San Giacomo with a patron and San
Bartolomeo.
Then there is a large chapel called the Holy
Sacrament, but also called the Remembrance Chapel. Built in 1435 by
Bishop Guido Memo and frescoed by Jacopo Bellini the following year, it
has been subject to various interventions over the centuries, the last
of which occurred in 1762. The arch through which you enter the chapel
is adorned with prophets and angels in bas-relief by the sculptor
Diomiro Cignaroli, while the altar, attributed to Francesco and Paolo
Maderno, is characterized on the sides by statues of Saints Zeno and
Nicolò by Francesco Zoppi. The altarpiece depicting the Last Supper is
the work of Gian Battista Burato.
The last chapel on the right
aisle is the Mazzanti Chapel, rebuilt in 1508 by Canon Francesco
Mazzanti and dedicated to Saints Francis and Agatha. Notable is the 1353
Gothic-style monument to a saint who is watched over by four angels in
her box. Below, under the altar, there is also the urn with the body of
Santa Maria Consolatrice, sister of Bishop Annon, to whom the church of
Santa Maria Consolatrice, located near the cathedral, is also dedicated.
Left pass
The first chapel along the left aisle is Cartolari
Nichesola, located just after the tomb of Galesio Nikesola, a Veronese
prelate who became Bishop of Belluno in the 16th century. The chapel was
built by the canon Bartolomeo Cartolari around 1468 and restored around
1532 by the Nikesola family, who commissioned the famous architect
Jacopo Sansovino to remodel the chapel and the altar, which houses the
magnificent altar of the Assumption of the Virgin by Titian. a painting
that was returned to Italy after French thefts during the Italian
campaign of 1797.
Immediately behind it is the chapel of
Abbazia-Lazzari, dedicated to the Most Holy Body of Jesus Christ and
commissioned by Canon Giovanni Abbazii in the 15th century, but later
acquired by the Lazzari family. It retains the original semi-circular
plan with a shell-covered apse. The altarpiece, surrounded by frescoes
depicting saints, apostles and angels, has undergone several
replacements over time; there is currently a work by Sante Prunati
depicting the Redeemer between Tobias and the angel, San Liborio and San
Francesco di Sales.
The third chapel on the left is Kartolari,
built in 1465 by Canon Bartolomeo Kartolari and restored in 1880 and
dedicated to San Michele Arcangelo. The Baroque altarpiece is a
17th-century work by Angelo Rangieri, decorated with various paintings:
on top, San Michele by Giuseppe Zannoni from 1880; in the center a
triptych of 1531 with the Madonna, San Gerolamo and San Giorgio, patron
of the Chapter of the Canons, from the school of Francesco Caroto; under
a valuable predella by Francesco Morone depicting the birth of the
Baptist.
Then comes the large chapel, facing the chapel of the
Blessed Sacrament, similar in size; especially dear to the inhabitants
of Verona, it is dedicated to the Madonna del Popolo, whose local cult
dates back to the 13th century. The structure dates back to the 16th
century, but the interior was modified in 1756. Inside, there is an
imposing statue of the Madonna and Child from 1921 by the sculptor
Vincenzo Cadorin, beneath which is an urn with a "thorn" of Saints Fermo
and Rustico, martyrs venerated in Verona.
Finally, at the end of
the nave is the Maffei Chapel, built in the early 16th century by Canons
Francesco and Girolamo Maffei. It has undergone numerous renovations,
for which the current altarpiece is the work of Agostino Ugolini around
1794, depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints Andrew, Annona, Jerome
and John the Baptist. In the lunette above the arch there is also a
16th-century deposition attributed to Falconetto, among others, to the
author of other frescoes in the same chapel.
pipe organs
In
the last aisle of the two side aisles, above the special wooden choirs,
there are two organs: the organ commonly called "Antegnati", on the
right, and the "Farinati" organ on the left, both characterized by a
finely carved wooden case with double elevations, consisting of two
lateral tubercles of seven pipes and a central one of five, interspersed
with two columns of dead barrel-organs.
The Antegnati organ was
built by order of Agostino Vallera, Bishop of Verona between 1565 and
1606; in 1683 Bishop Sebastiano Pisani II commissioned the painter
Biagio Falchieri to decorate the doors, depicting the Assumption of Mary
outside and the paintings on the balustrade of the choir, the Birth of
Mary and the Visitation. Unfortunately, the original instrument has been
lost, and the current one was rebuilt "in the style" of Barthélemy
Formentelli in 1992, which was inspired by the instrument of the time
and used antique pipes, appropriately restored.
In the case on
the left, the same age as the other, there is a 1909 instrument with a
mixed mechanical-pneumatic transmission, made by the Verona master
Domenico Farinati. At the end of the 16th century, Felice Brusasorzi
painted the doors of a chest with four bishops of Verona inside and the
Assumption of the Virgin outside; he also painted a picture on the
balustrade of the choir depicting Stories from the Old Testament. The
instrument was restored in 1994 by Formentelli.
Inside the choir,
in the marble choir on the right, is the Bonato opus 13 organ, built in
2007 and regularly used for liturgies and concerts. With an electronic
transmission, it has two keyboards of 61 notes each and a 32-note pedal
set.