Right beside piazza delle Erbe is my favorite square named and dedicated to my beloved poet Dante Alighieri, who wrote the Divine Comedy about what the soul goes through after death, what I find fascinating about his Comedy is that Dante said that it was the simple collection of the stories told by people on the streets at his time, the XIII sec. and it’s embraced by the Catholics and the Vatican as a reliable description of the after-death of people of all kinds.For the history of this place, you have to start from the Scala family, the rulers of the Verona town-state bearing in mind, however, that in the square there were already the Municipal Palace and the Domus Nova. At the end of the XIII century, the square (which was then called Platea Domini vicarii), did not have today’s rectangular form; neither the palace that is now called the Palace of the Courts, nor the Palace of Government. The entire building would have been sold to the nobleman Galasso Pio da Carpi in 1408, but in 1490 it turned out to be the property of the House of Charity (in typical Italian style).
Perhaps it was during these years that the building was remodeled and the façade was transformed into the simple Renaissance style of today. On the face of the building there is a curious base relief with a seated woman who holds a flag in her hand, upon which it is written Fide et Charitate in aeternum non deficiam. The woman represents Verona resting safe in the shadow of the Serenissima Republic (Venice), protecting her.
Verona’s oldest Caffè is important, which hung out the sign “Dante” in 1863, following the erection of the monument to the poet in the square. The place was frequented by professionals, men of letters, artists and politicians, especially the elderly, who formed various “small parliaments”, discussing politics, art and above all criticizing everything, like all Italians since ever.
The Palace of the Council was not entirely completed, when it was decided to place a few statues on the arch at the top of via delle Fogge. The administration decided upon St. Zenone, protector of the city, and the task was given to this “magistro Angelo lapicida”. But things got complicated. Instead of St. Zenone, a statue of Girolamo Fracastoro was placed on the arch in 1559.
The great doctor, poet and astronomer is dressed in the Roman style and holds a sphere of he world in his hand. The sphere immediately struck the shrewd popular fantasy: Fracastoro would have dropped the sphere on the head of the first honorable man that walked under the arch. But the sphere is still there… In 1756, the statue of Scipione Maffei was placed on the arch facing via Barbaro.
1865 was the sixth centennial of the birth of Dante and Italy was about to solemnly commemorate the recurrence. As an initiative of the Academy of Agriculture and the Society of Fine Arts, to which the City Council adhered, it was decided to erect a statue of Dante in Piazza dei Signori, where the Scala Palace that had hosted the “Ghibellin fuggiasco”.
On 6th October 1863 a call for tender was emanated for the design of the statue. The only conditions were that the second quality Carrara marble be suitable for a height of three meters, supported by a pedestal and that the figure, which would turn its back to via delle Fogge, have its head turned slightly towards the left, or namely towards Scala Palace of the Courts.
It was then stated that the Poet must have been turned towards free Italy. The winner of the tender was a young, entirely unknown artist, Ugo Zannoni.
The statue was uncovered on 14 May 1865, in the early morning. It was not desired that the Austrian authorities intervene in the inaugural ceremony.
Not much later the Austrians were sent back to their home country and the rest can be read on history books that talk about the conquest of independence for Italy and WWII, so I’m not going to continue on this.
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