The Cathedral of Verona
An enchanting Romanesque structure, the Duomo is surrounded by sacred buildings and cultura/ institutions. Admiring the view from Castel San Pietro, one’s eye is particularly attracted to a large church, which is crowned by pinnac/es and endowed with a /arge belltower: this is the Cathedral of Verona. .
It is situated within the nucleus of the ancient Roman city, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, and was born trom the ashes of two early Christian churches which fe/1 down during the earthquake of 1117 it was originally buit in Romanesque style, however, over the years it underwent severa/ changes, radical/y aftering its origina/ appe arance. As part of the complex of the Duomo, there are two adjacent churches Sant’Elena and San Giovanni in Fonte, as wel1 as the Capitolo cloister, which faces the splendid library, the Biblioteca Cap tolare, famous for its extraordinary ancient manuscripts. It was here that in 1345 Petrarch discovered a
volume of letters by Cicero, and the Biblioteca Capitolare also houses the very famous manuscript called the Indovinello Veronese (Riddle of Verona), which is the first evidence of the ltalian language, stili in an embryonic phase of development.
The façade of the cathedra/ constitutes a splendid composition of tufo stone, white marble, pinkish-red marble, and terracotta. Its style is essential/y Romanesque, being characterized by three vertica/ divisions, obtained by two columns bordering the entrance, and then there are two Gothic style mullion windows. In the middle, there is a two-level portico which protects the grand entrance. The lower level, built of white and pinkish-red marble, distinguishes itself from the upper part, which is in tufo stone, and characterized by the presence of bas-re/ief figures, depicting St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist. The interior layout, with three naves and five bays, resulted from the Gothic transformation which took piace between 1444 and 1513. When visiting the interior of the Cathedral, one has the opportunity to behold splendid frescoes and several chapels, decorated by beautiful paintings, including Titian’s Assunta (the Assumption of the Virgin).
