Verona

Verona, an ancient city of Italy, capital of a province in the division of Venetia, stands on a plain at the base of the foot-hills of the Alps, 72 miles W. of Venice by railway. It stands on a bend of the Adige, by which it is divided into two unequal parts, connected by five bridges. The aspect of the town and of the landscape around is remarkably fine. Verona is a fortress of the first class, a member of the famous Quadrilateral (q.v.), and has always been considered a place of strength since it was surrounded with walls by the Emperor Gallienus in 265 A.D. After passing into the hands of the Austrians in 1815 it was greatly strengthened; and after 1849 they made every effort to render it impregnable. The walls are now obsolete, the strength of the city depending on a circle of outlying forts. Of its many interesting edifices the chief is the amphitheatre, built in the 2d or 3d century A.D. The building has been fairly well preserved, the interior having, however, been 'restored.' The lesser diameter of the building is 404 feet, that of the arena 146 feet; and the edifice is calculated to have contained 22,000 people. Among Roman remains are gateways, part of a theatre, and some mosaics found in 1885. The streets of Verona are wide, especially the Corso; there are four principal squares, of which the Piazza dei Signori contains the palace of the Della Scala (1370) and the superb Palazzo del Consiglio (restored in 1873). The cathedral dates from 1187, and has an altarpiece by Titian; the Romanesque basilica of St Zeno is larger and more interesting, and belongs to the same century; and there are many other churches, some of them containing fine paintings. The palaces are also numerous and fine, a number of them by Sanmichele. The ancient castle of Theodoric is still a barrack; the Castle of the Scalas (1355) is also a barrack and arsenal. The picture-gallery is especially rich in pictures of the Veronese, Paduan, and Venetian schools. The most important masters of the Veronese school were Altichiero (14th century), Vittore Pisano or Pisanello (1380-1455), and Morone (1473-1529). Paul Veronese, though a native, belonged to the Venetian school. Among the glories of the place are the tombs of the Scala family, with their wondrous wrought-iron railing of separate links, dating from 1350 to 1380. There is much trade in corn, oil, and wine, especially transit trade with Germany by the Brenner railway, and manufactures of silk, woollens and cottons, furniture, musical instruments, &c. Pop. 60,768. The oldest inhabitants of Verona were Rhetians, who were conquered by the Celtic Cenomani. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Romans, and under the empire became one of the most flourishing cities in the north of Italy. Constantine took it by assault in 312; Stilicho defeated the Goths here in 402; Attila plundered it in 452; Theodoric the Ostrogoth defeated Odoacer here in 489, made it his residence, and figures much in mediæval legend as Theodoric of Verona (in German Dietrich von Bern). It was long the capital of the Lombards; afterwards it was torn by the struggles of Ghibellines and Guelphs, being the home of Shakespeare's Capulets and Montagues (q.v.). After the death of Ezzelino da Romano, a chief of the Montecchi, the city chose in 1260 Mastino della Scala as podestà, and from that date his family exercised a powerful and brilliant tyranny over the city for 127 years, the most powerful of the Scala princes (in Latin Scaligeri; as having in legend been first to mount a ladder—Lat. scala—in a siege) being Can Grande I. (died 1329), the patron and protector of Dante. Mastino II. died in 1351, Can Grande II. in 1359, Can Signorio in 1375. In 1387 the city fell under the power of Milan, in 1405 under that of Venice, and with Venice passed under Austrian domination till 1866. See Perini, Storia di Verona (1873-75).