Santa Maria Antica

Santa Maria Antica is a huge Romanesque church was the parish church of the Scaligeri clan. Founded in the 7th century, the interior is very beautiful. The structure is of alternating bands of brick and stone. The square belfry has Gothic mullioned windows, and inset glass crosses in the roof admit light. Only large enough to hold a couple dozen people at most for mass, when the Scaligeri chose this to be their funerary chapel, the only place for their massive tombs was outside. Hovering in mid-air above the entrance to the church is the Tomb of Cangrande I. The base of the fancy sarcophagus forms the porch. Above is a Gothic canopy with a pyramid-shaped roof. The statue of the dead warlord is on top; however, the whole assembly is topped with a statue of Cangrande on horseback, in armor, sword in hand, with a manic smile and his outrageous dog-head helmet. Towering over the fence are the spire topped tombs of Mastino II and Cansignorio, with splendidly wrought Gothic pinnacles bristling like lances, and similar detailed carvings, statues, winged helmets and wrought-iron fences with the Scaligeri ladder emblems. In all of Europe, there is nothing like these spiky, flamboyant, monuments. Simpler tombs near the church wall contain other members of the Scaligeri clan, including Mastino I, Bartolomeo (d. 1304) and Giovanni (d. 1359).