Architecture

Giuseppe Barbieri designed the Monumental Cemetery of Verona as a large square enclosure with a neoclassical architectural structure. The space dedicated to burials at ground level is bordered on each of its four sides by an ambulatory, a large covered corridor surrounded by an impressive Doric colonnade.

At the centre of every ambulatory, the pantheon stand out, particular structures that indicate the most important points of the cemetery. The pantheon Resurrecturis coincides with the main entrance of the cemetery, while on the other side lies the temple Piis Lacrimis, a reference to the ancient model of the Pantheon in Rome. The building on the left, Ingenio Claris, houses the remains of the illustrious Veronese, while the one on the right, Beneficis in Patriam, is dedicated to the benefactors of the city.

The construction of the cemetery lasted until the last decade of the nineteenth century: many of the graves in fact, were not built simultaneously, but purchased as they became necessary.

The architectural structure of the cemetery and the rigid hierarchy according to which the burials are distributed, provide a cross-section of the social and economic conditions of the Veronese families starting from nineteenth century.

The two hundred monumental tombs belonging to the richest and most prestigious families of Verona can be found in the intercolumniation, in a position to guarantee maximum visibility and protection from the elements.

Many tombs are located at ground level and are leaning against the stylobate, the basement on which the colonnade of the ambulatories stands. On the back of the latter instead, the columbaria, simple overlapping niches in six rows on each side, were intended to accommodate the more modest burials of families of the local bourgeoisie.