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The Cathedral Complex is built around the church of Santa Maria Matricolare, seat of the Bishop of Verona (called a cathedral because it houses the bishop's throne). The complex includes the baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte and the buildings of the canons (the clergy responsible for liturgical services), namely the church of Sant'Elena and the canonical cloister.
The first cathedral in Verona was founded in the 4th century and its remains, with mosaic floors, may be seen beneath the cloister. The structure of the church, with three naves, goes back to the 12th century. The side doorway was sculpted by Pelegrinus between 1120 and 1130, while the porch of the main doorway, with its griffins holding stylophores, is the work of the sculptor Nicholaus, dated 1139. Next to the door, two paladins stand guard, tradition identifying them as Orlando and Olivier from the poem Chanson de Roland.
In later periods, the building underwent various architectural and artistic transformations. The most evident, dating from between 1535 and 1541, is the circular enclosure of the chancel in the apse area (tornacoro), designed by Michele Sanmicheli and adorned with frescoes by Francesco Torbido using preparatory cartoons by Giulio Romano. In the Cartolari-Nichesola Chapel, there is the Assumption of the Virgin, painted around 1535 by Titian. In the Romanesque baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, the octagonal baptismal font is particularly noteworthy, while the church of Sant'Elena is famous because on 20 January 1320, the poet Dante Alighieri delivered a lecture there entitled Quaestio de aqua et terra.
