Arche Scaligere

Arche Scaligere stands beside Santa Maria Antica in Verona, enclosing five Gothic funerary monuments within a small courtyard. Wrought-iron grilles separate the site from the street, while stair motifs and saint figures decorate its stone pillars.

The Scaliger family built these tombs between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when they ruled Verona. Cangrande I rests beneath a Gothic tabernacle supported by dogs, with religious and military reliefs on the sarcophagus. Mastino II’s monument began in 1345 and preserves four Virtues at its corners, while its equestrian figure is a replica. Cansignorio’s tomb, completed in 1375, carries warrior saints, Evangelists, Virtues, Apostles, and a large mounted statue. Alberto II has only a richly carved sarcophagus, and Giovanni’s monument stands within the church wall.

Most figures wear armour and appear on horseback above raised sarcophagi, creating a vertical Gothic ensemble. The original equestrian statue of Cangrande is kept at Castelvecchio, leaving the courtyard with a carefully made copy.