The Patron Saint of Verona, Verona

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The magnificent look of the apse and Romanesque bell-tower of the basilica of San Zeno. The roof and the apse were rebuilt in the Gothic period.
The weathered Veronese stone of which the basilica is built has a warm golden tone, and the restrained lines of the pillars, the columns, the cornices and the gallery with its double windows give the whole facade an ar of harmonious elegance.
This picture was taken from Via Pontiqua.

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The eye f the visitor is immediately captured by the great engraved rose window, called the wheel of fortune, by Briolotto.
The Porch was designed by Maestro Nicolo (1138). Simple and elegant architectural structure, resting on two styloforus lions.
The Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore ranks with the Amphitheatre as one of Verona's most important monuments.

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The Basilica of San Zeno is without any doubt one of the most suggestive and better preserved example of Romanesque architecture in the whole of Northern Italy. What strikes the visitor most is the warm chromatism of the facade, due to the alternated use of tufa stone and bricks.

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The original nucleus of the complex has been indentified in the church and convent that rose on the Roman and later early Christian buring ground near the Via Gallica. The church and the convent had been built on the spot where the Saint had been buried, in order to preserve his relics and honor his memory.

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The style of the sculptural decorations in the form of telamons, months, prophets, zoomorphous and vegetal elementsis mature and essential. Polychrome lunette portraying Saint Zeno receiving the homage of the citizens. Frieze depicting scenes from the Saint's life.
Bronze doors, the real masterpiece, obtained assembling doors of different periods and the work of different unknown artists.

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The interior of the basilica is a must see. Renaissance Altar was designed in 1520 by F. Torbido, votive frescos and paintings of different Artists and time, Main Chapel built in Gothic style between 1386 and 1398 by Giovanni and Nicolo di Ferrara, Laughing San Zeno polychrome statue by an unknown Artist from 13th century....

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Crypt. What we see today, a real forest of columns, is the result of the rearrangementof the tenth century crypt done between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. The venerated body of St. Zeno, the Patron Saint of Verona, is preserved in the urn in the apse.

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This is the Main Chapel. The frescos of the triumphal arch and the apse have been attribuited to Martino da Verona (end of 14th c.) Wooden altair-piece "Maesta della Vergine" by Andrea Mantegna, a masterpiece of North Italian Renaissance painting. Some of art works here are of unique value. San Zeno is definatelly one of those churches which has to be observed and explored with extreme attention.