Arche Scaligere

The Arche Scaligere are a cluster of Gothic marble funerary monuments standing in the open air beside the church of Santa Maria Antica in central Verona. Commissioned by the Scaligeri — Verona's ruling lords from 1260 to 1387 — the tombs combine elaborate canopied sarcophagi with equestrian sculptures atop, with Cansignorio's tomb of 1375 considered the artistic pinnacle of the ensemble. The Scaligeri were patrons of the arts who briefly sheltered Dante Alighieri during his exile, giving the family an outsized place in Italian cultural memory. Their dynasty ended abruptly in 1387 when the Visconti seized Verona; the tombs have since been preserved as an Italian national monument and can be viewed up close through a wrought-iron enclosure without an admission fee.