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Overview
The Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore is named after the patron saint of Verona, the eighth bishop in the city's history, who died in 380 AD.Zeno was originally from Mauritania (which is why he is called "il vescovo moro") and was known as a highly cultured figure and author of exegetical texts. Legend recounts his passion for fishing, a symbolic allusion to the apostles who were "fishers of men". His remains are kept in the crypt of the basilica, considered one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in Italy. The church was likely to have been founded as early as the 4th century, while the Benedictine abbey was established during the Carolingian period. The existing building was constructed in several phases between the 10th and 12th centuries. The structure has three naves with semicircular apses. The arches are punctuated by large multi-lobed pillars. The altar area is raised above the crypt and can be accessed by a staircase. The façade was decorated in 1138 with the vestibule and reliefs by the sculptor Niccolò, who had already worked in Piacenza, Ferrara and Val Susa, and who also created the vestibule of Verona Cathedral in 1139. Niccolò was assisted by a master named Guglielmo. In the lunette of the porch, supported by two griffins, Saint Zeno tramples on the devil and welcomes the citizens (knights and foot soldiers). On either side of the doorway are scenes from Genesis, stories of Christ and, in the lower section, the legend of King Theodoric, who set out on a deer hunt that ended in the jaws of the devil. Sometime around the year 1200, the master Brioloto created the rose window on the façade, representing the Wheel of Fortune: in the wheel of life, even those who rise high eventually fall.
The church of San Zeno houses one of the few bronze doors from medieval times. The door was crafted by three different masters, whose names remain unknown, between the 12th and 13th centuries. The decoration consists of 48 panels illustrating episodes from the Old and New Testaments, as well as a series of miracles performed by Saint Zeno. The narrative vitality of the figures stands out in the scene depicting the exorcism of Emperor Gallienus' daughter. You can see the demon emerging twisted from the girl's mouth. In front of the left apse sits a statue of the saintly fisherman with a cheerful smile, popularly known as "San Zeno che ride" (laughing Saint Zeno). It was probably commissioned between the 13th and 14th centuries by Abbot Giuseppe della Scala, Cangrande's half-brother, a violent man given to sin, condemned by Dante in Canto XVIII of Purgatory.
On the counter-façade there is a large crucifix believed to be by Lorenzo Veneziano, one of the finest Venetian artists of the second half of the 14th century, while the walls of the aisles feature numerous sacred frescoes by Giottesque painters.
On the main altar, you can admire Andrea Mantegna's altarpiece depicting a Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints, commissioned by Abbot Gregorio Correr between 1456 and 1457. This is a Renaissance masterpiece in terms of its spatial and perspective conception of the Sacred Conversation among the Saints. Going from the left, you can see Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Zeno, Saint Benedict, Saint Lawrence, Saint Gregory the Great and Saint John the Baptist. The halo of the Madonna on the throne recalls the wheel of fortune on the façade.
