Basilica di Sant'Anastasia

Sant'Anastasia is Verona's largest church and a major expression of Italian Gothic architecture. Built by the Dominicans with support from the Della Scala family, it contains Pisanello's Saint George and the Princess, two sculpted holy-water stoups and chapels filled with Veronese art.

Why it matters

The church stands at the end of the Roman decumanus from Porta Borsari. Its name preserves that of an earlier Lombard-period church dedicated to the fourth-century martyr Anastasia. The Dominicans settled here around 1290 and began the Gothic basilica with the support of Verona's ruling Della Scala family. Although commonly called Sant'Anastasia, the church has been formally dedicated to Saint Peter Martyr since 1307. Its paintings include important works of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Veronese art.

What to notice

Red Veronese marble, white Istrian stone and black basanite form the floor, a scheme associated with the Dominican habit and the blood of martyrs. Twelve columns of red Veronese marble support the three aisles. Two holy-water stoups near the entrance rest on figures known as the gobbi; tradition links them to the labour involved in building the church. Pisanello's Saint George and the Princess, painted between 1433 and 1438 from Andrea Pellegrini's testamentary commission, occupies the arch of the Pellegrini chapel. Altichiero's 1370 votive fresco in the Cavalli chapel depicts the donors kneeling within painted Gothic architecture.

Context and history

The Dominican community began construction around 1290 on the site of a Lombard-era church. The basilica was substantially complete by the mid-fifteenth century, although its brick façade remained unfinished; it was consecrated in 1471. The Dominicans remained until 1808, when the church passed to the diocesan clergy. Its chapels preserve works including Giano Fregoso's funerary monument by Danese Cattaneo, a Deposition by Liberale da Verona, a Saint Martin altarpiece by Francesco Caroto and a panel by Girolamo dai Libri. Lorenzo Veneziano's Madonna dell'Umiltà, painted around 1372, is venerated near the main altar, where the city's Rosary devotion has long been centred.