But the real excitement for the week was today when we went to the Basilica of San Zeno with our Art History class. Having already toured the Sant'Anastasia church last week, I couldn't believe that the churches here could get any more amazing. Ah, but they very much can.
It was another cloudy and rainy day (the usual) but nothing could ruin this gem.
The church was originally a monastery, so there was a nice courtyard used for gardening by the monks off to the left of the church. And thanks to all this rain, the grass was looking very green.
Once we entered the basilica, I was blown away by the intensity of detail that every inch held.
The main chapel, originally only accessible by the monks, was elevated to the main level of the church. As you can see, there is a lower level that is directly underneath the main chapel, this is called the crypt. San Zeno is preserved and kept in a gated area in the crypt, which was pretty cool to see, even from a distance.
We explored more of the main chapel, and the frescos along the right wall were depicting how San Zeno came to be so respected in Verona. He was called the fisherman since his mission in Verona was to convert the Veronese to Christianity.
These frescos have writing on them from the Veronese dating back the the 16th century (if you look closely at the bottom of the pictures you can see white writing from hundreds of years ago.. crazy huh?) They would write and pray to their Saint asking to help their city during the raining season to not flood. Ironically (or maybe due to San Zeno) the church never flooded, even though it was close to the river. unfortunately, this was not always true for the entire city of Verona, but hey a guy can only do so much.
Below is a sculpture of San Zeno. After much research, Italians found out that San Zeno actually came form Africa, so in this statue he is seen with dark skin, but lots of paintings and sculptures show him with white skin. As Andrea (our teacher) pointed out that this statue is far from anything magnificent, it is still a very famous sculpture due to the smiling face of the Saint.
If you look closely, you can see he is holding up three fingers, as he is blessing the people of Verona with his fingers, replicating the trinity.
*Bonus fact: San Zeno was the 8th Bishop of Verona, which is why he is holding a staff and wearing the mitre.
The main chapel was breath taking. Behind the alter was a wooden replication of a masterpiece created during the renaissance. It was stolen by Napoleon and taken to France, but they replication was still quite a site to see. The three panels on the top represent the Virgin Mary holding infant Jesus and they are surrounded by eight saints -- one being San Zeno of course -- and the three panels below are some stages of the cross.
Looking at the other end of the church, there is the rose window which became a popular symbol of Verona as your eyes are quickly drawn to this object on both the inside and outside of the basilica.
There were four different baptismal fonts on both sides of the rose window. My favorite was the one in the back left corner because it was a octagon instead of a circle which was the shape of the other three fonts.
The wall next to this font was filled with crosses each having a different biblical scenes inside of them, it was very intriguing.
Andrea saved the coolest part for last -- the Bronze door. This door was created around the 11th century and has 40 different panels depicting famous biblical scenes. I could not believe how well it has been kept for all these years, some of the panels still had some color to it but most of it has deteriorated with time.
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