Museo di Castelvecchio

Castelvecchio Museum brings Verona's art collections into a fourteenth-century Scaliger fortress. Carlo Scarpa's twentieth-century intervention makes the relationship between works of art, historic fabric and modern display a central part of the museum's character.

Why it matters

Working with director Licisco Magagnato from 1958, Scarpa developed a new approach to the castle's spaces. Exposed concrete, carefully positioned supports and openings into earlier fabric reveal layers of the building while giving individual objects distinct settings.

What to notice

The collections include medieval sculpture, Pisanello's Madonna of the Quail and paintings by Mantegna, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese. The equestrian statue of Cangrande I occupies a particularly prominent position on Scarpa's concrete support. A floor opening reveals the former moat, connecting the display with the castle's defensive history.

Context and history

The fortress was built in the mid-fourteenth century and later underwent repeated alterations. Antonio Avena and Ferdinando Forlati's restoration of 1924–1926 gave it a medievalising appearance before the museum opened in 1926. Scarpa's later work reconsidered both those interventions and the presentation of the collection, continuing in phases into the 1970s.