📍 🇮🇹 The beloved tomb of Sant'Anastasia

Sant'Anastasia. First stone in 1290, finished in 1481; with many imperfections and blunders that can be seen here and there, on the facade especially.

Biggest church of Verona but of a size that deserves tribute: double ogival gate (Gothic) topped by a beautifully veined ogival roof; and with massive Romanesque-style pillars inside. Two periods, two solutions of the Middle Ages converging.

English historian John Ruskin (1819-1900) stole our hearts with his description of Guglielmo's tomb on the piazza (see our picture): "observe the simplicity and severity of the arch lines, the exquisitely delicate suggestion of the ogee curve in the apex, and chiefly the use of the cusp in giving inward weight to the great pieces of stones to the flanks of the arch - all sustained safely by four slender pillars. The most perfect Gothic sepulchral monument in the world, and my most beloved monument in Italy..."

Charming.

Ruskin did not know the name of the deceased in his analysis, and he failed to guess the construction date - he bet on ~1200 CE but research now points to ~1320 CE. But in any case, he was right to assume that Guglielmo's was built before Cangrande's Scaliger tomb (~1330 CE), which it most probably inspired.

Foci-tip: walk to Scaliger tombs to see for yourself 🙂

____ Sources ____

>> John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice", 1851