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The ancient parish cemetery of Santa Maria Antica was transformed into the burial ground of the Della Scala family, who ruled Verona from 1277 to 1387. The equestrian funerary monuments in the iron mesh enclosure are one of the masterpieces of European Gothic art.
The tombs of the first Scaliger lords (Mastino I, Alberto I, Bartolomeo I and Alboino) are simple red marble sarcophagi. Cangrande I, who died in Treviso in 1329, was laid to rest in a sarcophagus richly decorated with sculptures by the Master of Santa Anastasia and the Master of the Arca Dussaimi.
Beginning in the mid-1330s, Mastino II, Cangrande's nephew, commissioned an extraordinary sculptor, still unknown, to build a new tomb for Cangrande, placed above the entrance to Santa Maria Antica, and, at the same time, his own monumental tomb, erected as an open-air tabernacle. The equestrian statue of Cangrande looks smilingly towards the effigy of Mastino on horseback, ready to dash off to a tournament. The copies stand on the arches, while the original equestrian statues are on display at the Castelvecchio Museum.
The third large arch, with its spectacular hexagonal shape, was commissioned by Cansignorio, the third son of Mastino II, from the sculptor Bonino da Campione (1375). Sometime around 1382, Antonio Della Scala had the wrought iron fence built and placed the figures of Verona and Vicenza, Temperance and Justice on four pedestals. The Scaliger cemetery is also home to the tomb of Giovanni, cousin of Mastino II, which was transferred here in 1831 from the church of San Fermo Minore.
