Tourist Attraction in Verona:
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Matricolare (Duomo)

The cathedral of Santa Maria Matricolare (also called duomo) is the main place of Catholic worship in the city of Verona, the cathedral of the homonymous diocese. The current structure is located in the place where it was built in the fourth century (of which we see some mosaics in the cloister and in the nearby church of St. Helena [1]) probably by the bishop Zeno, the first Christian church in the city. This church had three naves with a raised presbytery and also had a baptistery. In the fifth century the primitive church was flanked by a second, the ecclesia matricularis, larger and equipped with narthex, that is a typical structure of the basilicas that connected the aisles with the outside; these structures were razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1117. The construction of a new cathedral began only three years later, in 1120, and ended in the year 1187; on September 13 of that same year, he was solemnly consecrated by Pope Urban III. Over the centuries the church, especially in the sixteenth and sixteenth centuries, underwent various alterations which, however, did not concern either its plan or its orientation; the current arrangement of the façade dates back to the sixteenth century, first lower and devoid of the rose window and the two large lateral two-light windows. The bell tower, built on a Romanesque precedent, was raised up to about 30 meters from Michele Sanmicheli and brought to the current height only in the early twentieth century, remaining unfinished (it is devoid of the cusp). The cathedral is located in the medieval area of ​​Verona, inside the bend of the Adige, not far from the Ponte Pietra, and on the southern side of the episcopal citadel. The main façade, which dominates Piazza Duomo, is tripartite, has a pediment and in the middle there is a porch with a lower part in white and rosy marbles, with twisted columns supporting an arch, on whose sides are plant motifs, scenes of hunting and figures of saints; the upper part of the porch is in tuff and has an arch surmounted by a tympanum and resting on two griffins and eight columns. The portal, by Niccolò (sculptor), is carved with images of biblical prophets and real and fantastic animals taken from medieval bestiaries; the lateral porch on which the bell tower rises has two orders of columns with highly decorated capitals, bas-reliefs and remains of fourteenth-century frescoes. The vault of the lower arch presents the symbols of the four Evangelists. The beautiful portal is surmounted by a lunette in which you can see a polychrome bas-relief depicting the Madonna enthroned with the Child, surrounded by the Magi and the shepherds. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century the two large bifurcated windows were inserted into the façade, the central rose window surrounded by a blind loggia with eight copies of small columns; all dominated by a last slender level that culminates in the coat of arms of Cardinal Agostino Valier, who was bishop of Verona for three decades (from 1565 to 1599) and an important member of the Holy Office. On the jamb of the portal there is the statue of the Orlando paladin. The cathedral houses three pipe organs.

Attractions in Verona