Page 206 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

204  T h e V ene T o AR e A B y AR e A

Across the Ponte Romano who succeeded in overcoming
his opponents, including Mark
The Ponte Romano, or Roman Bridge, links Verona’s city Antony and Cleopatra, to become
centre to the eastern bank of the Adige river. This upmarket the sole ruler of the Roman
residential district is dotted with fine palaces, gardens and world in 31 BC. The subject of
churches, and offers good views back on to the towers the female bust in the adjoining
and domes of the medieval city. cell is unknown. Next comes
the tiny cloister, littered with
mosaics and ancient masonry
fragments, and a warren of
ancient rooms used to display
pottery, glass, inscriptions and
tombstones. Labelling stops
after a while, leaving visitors to
puzzle out the nature and age
of exhibits for themselves.
R Santo Stefano
Via Santo Stefano. Tel 045 834
85 29. Open during Mass and
religious ceremonies.
This is one of the city’s oldest
churches; the original, long-
demolished building was built
View from the Teatro Romano across the Adige river in the 6th century. It served as
Verona’s cathedral until the 12th
T Teatro Romano E Museo Archeologico century when the Duomo was
Rigaste Redentore 2. Tel 045 800 03 Rigaste Redentore 2. Tel 045 800 03 built (see p201) on the opposite
60. Open 8:30am–7:30pm daily (from 60. Open 8:30am–7:30pm daily (from bank of the Adige. Visitors are
1:30pm Mon; also open Mon am on 1:30pm Mon; also open Mon am on afforded a striking view of the
public hols). & 7 public hols). & Duomo across the river, taking
When this theatre was built, A lift carries visitors from in the Romanesque apse and
in the 1st century BC, the the Teatro Romano up the bishop’s palace alongside.
plays perform ed would through the cliffs to the Santo Stefano itself was rebuilt
have included satirical monastery above. This is at the same time by Lombard
dramas by such writers now converted into an architects and given its
as Terence and Plautus. archaeological museum octagonal red brick campanile,
The tradition continu es in which panoramic city but the original apse survives.
with open-air perfor- views vie for attention Inside the church there is a
mances at the annual with the range of exhibits. Byzantine-influenced arrange-
Shakespeare festival. Augustus Caesar, The first part of the ment of a stone bishop’s seat
The theatre is built Museo Archeologico museum displays well- and bench, and a gallery with
into a bank above the restored mosaics, one 8th-century carved capitals. The
Adige river. The views over the of which depicts the kind of apse (often locked) is even older,
city must have been as entranc- gory gladiatorial combat that dating back to the original
ing to Roman theatre-goers as once went on in Verona’s 6th-century building. In the
the events on stage. Certainly it amphitheatre (see p197). crypt there are fragments of
is for the views that the theatre Such barbaric perfor- 13th-century frescoes and
is best visited today, since little mances, seen as a a 14th-century statue of
is left of the original stage area, legitimate way of St Peter.
though the semicircular seating disposing of criminals Towering above the
area remains largely intact. and prisoners of war, church to the east is
In the foreground of the view finally came to an end Castel San Pietro, fronted
is one of three Roman bridges in the early 5th century by flame-shaped
that brought traffic into the city. following a decree cypress trees. The
The only one to have survived, from the Christian present castle was
this had to be painstakingly Emperor Honorius. built in 1854 under
reconstructed after being In the little monastic Austrian rule, but it
blown up in 1945 by retreating cells to the side of this stands on the ruins of
German soldiers who were room, visitors can see an earlier castle which
attempting to delay the a bronze bust of the was built by the
advance of Allied troops. Of the first Roman emperor, Visconti of Milan
five arches, the two nearest to the young Augustus Figure of St Peter, when they captured
the theatre are least altered. Caesar (63 BC–AD 14), Santo Stefano Verona in 1387.

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