Scaliger Tombs


The Scaliger Tombs is a group of five Gothic funerary monuments in Verona, Italy, celebrating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century.
The tombs are located in a court outside the church of Santa Maria Antica, separated from the street by a wall with iron grilles. Built in Gothic style, they are a series of tombs, mostly freestanding open tabernacle-like structures rising high above the ground, with a sarcophagus surmounted by an elaborate baldachin, topped by a statue of the deceased, mounted and wearing armour. According to the French historian Georges Duby, they are one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic art.

Description

The tombs are placed within an enclosure of wrought iron grilles decorated with a stair motif, referring to the name of the della Scala family, meaning "of the stairs" in Italian. The stone pillars of the enclosure have statues of saints. The tombs are those of the following notable members of the Scaliger dynasty: