Sant'Anastasia is a church of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. In

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, it is located in the most ancient part of the city, near the Ponte Pietra.

History

The current church was started in 1280 and completed in 1400, designed by the Dominican friars Fra' Benvenuto da Imola and Fra' Nicola da Imola. It took its name from a pre-existing temple built by King

Theoderic the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy b ...

upon which was built the actual church. Since 1307, it is in fact co-entitled to St.

Peter of Verona Peter of Verona (1205 – April 6, 1252), also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was kille ...

, martyr and co-patron of the city. Consecrated only in 1471, until 1808 the church was held by the Dominicans. The 72 m tall belltower had four bells in 1460, the fifth was added in 1650. In the 1839, the 9 bells were cast and tuned in C; they are rung in

Veronese bellringing art Veronese bell ringing is a style of ringing church bells that developed around Verona, Italy from the eighteenth century. The bells are rung full circle (mouth uppermost to mouth uppermost), being held up by a rope and wheel until a note is r ...

by a local team founded in 1776. The church is similar in structure to the Basilica of San Zanipolo in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Façade

The façade is divided into three vertical section corresponding to the nave and the two aisles in the interior. Unfinished, the façade is mostly in

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by s ...

. In the centre of the middle section is a simply

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

. The 15th century portal has two doors, and is enclosed into a Gothic structure (1330) with arches supported by ornamental columns in red, black and white marble. The arches forms three

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

s: in the larger one is a representation of the

Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

with two

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

s, flanked by St. Joseph and the

Holy Virgin Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

. The Father sits on a Gothic throne with Crucifix on his knees and Christ on his side, surmounted by a dove. In the two smaller lunettes, directly over the portal, are portrayed the Bishop leading the Veronese people and St.

leading the friars, with the white-black banner of the Dominicans. The five splays of the Gothic arch are decorated with six chronological scenes of Jesus' life: the Annunciation, the Birth, the Adoration of the Magi, the Path towards the Calvary, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The central column between the doors has high-reliefs with St. Dominic, St. Peter of Verona and St. Thomas. The

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

has three statues: the central and larger is Madonna with Child of Venetian school, while the other represents St. Anastasia and St. Catherine at the Wheel. The side sections of the façade, corresponding to the aisles, have large stainglassed mullioned windows, flanked by two square belfries.

Interior

The interior, on the Latin cross plan, is divided into a nave and two aisles, with crossed vaults, separated by six columns each; the latter are in white or

red Verona marble Red Verona marble is a variety of limestone rock which takes its name from Verona in Northern Italy. It includes internal skeletons of ammonites and belemnoidea rostra in a fecal pellets matrix. It has been quarried from Red Ammonitic ''facies'' ...

, with Gothic capitals. The four columns over the high altar show the coat of arms of the Castelbarco of Trento, a family who extensively contributed to the church's construction. Notable is the funerary monument to Cortesia Serego, on the left of the apse, which was finished in 1432 by Vincenzo di Stefano da Verona. It portrays the riding figure of Cortesia, clad with an armor and holding a commanding wand. His horse stands upon the sculpted sarcophagus, which has always been empty. The fresco part represents the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

and the Saints Peter of Verona and Dominic. The two stoups before the first two columns stands on two

hunchback Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result fr ...

figures, one of which attributed to

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

's elder son, Gabriele Caliari. The Pellegrini Chapel houses the late

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by th ...

fresco of '' St. George and the Princess'', main work of Pisanello, as well as terra-cotta statues by Michele di Firenze, executed before 1436. A frieze by the latter, or by Pisanello, has now disappeared. The Pellegrini chapel also houses the grave of

Wilhelm von Bibra Wilhelm von Bibra (1442–1490) (''Eques auratus'') was a Papal emissary. Papal emissary Wilhelm functioned as a Papal Emissary for both the archbishop of Cologne and Kaiser Friedrich. Wilhelm’s half brother, Prince Bishop Lorenz von Bibra ...

. The church ends with a large

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

Exterior

To the left of the church entrance, Guglielmo di Castelbarco, ''

podestà Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...

'' of Verona, built an arch that became his tomb (''Arca'') anticipating the more famous

Scaliger Tombs The Scaliger Tombs (Italian: ''Arche scaligere'') is a group of five Gothic funerary monuments in Verona, Italy, celebrating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century. The tombs are located in a court ou ...

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

* Concerto on the bells of S. Anastasia, Verona. 9 bells, cast 1839, tenor 1787 kg (35-0-20, 3,940 lbs), 143 cm tuned to C (in Italian "Do"). {{Coord, 45, 26, 43, N, 11, 0, 0, E , type:landmark_region:IT_scale:3000 , display=title Roman Catholic churches completed in 1400 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy

Anastasia Anastasia (from el, Ἀναστασία, translit=Anastasía) is a feminine given name of Greek origin, derived from the Greek word (), meaning "resurrection". It is a popular name in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, where it was the most ...

Dominican churches Gothic architecture in Verona