Juliet's Tomb

The red marble sarcophagus held to be Juliet’s

Juliet’s Tomb is a sarcophagus of red marble in the old convent of San Francesco al Corso, now Verona’s fresco museum. Juliet herself is a character from fiction, from a novella by Luigi da Porto, a writer from Vicenza, published in 1531, so what you’re looking at is a 16th-century tradition rather than a grave anyone can prove.

In the 16th century the scholar Girolamo dalla Corte was already writing about Juliet’s grave at San Francesco. Then, around 1560, Gherardo Boldieri, who had put the story into verse, suggested that a medieval sarcophagus in the convent garden was hers, and Verona’s own Juliet legend took off. By the 1700s travellers on the Grand Tour were coming to see it.

Early in the 19th century the visits turned into what the city calls a vaguely superstitious cult, and people broke off fragments to keep as relics. In 1868 a charity, the Congregazione della Carità, built a small chapel around the tomb, and a fence followed at the end of the century.

A bust of Shakespeare by Renato Cattani arrived in 1910. In 1938 Antonio Avena, who gave Juliet’s House its balcony a year later, restored the site and moved the tomb to where it lies today.

One ticket for Juliet’s Tomb and the fresco museum

There’s no ticket for the tomb on its own. It belongs to the Museo degli Affreschi G.B. Cavalcaselle, and the museum ticket covers both. You buy it at the museum’s ticket office or online at verona.coopculture.it, and booking isn’t required.

Under-14s have to come with an adult, and the cloakroom is free. Small dogs can come in a carrier.

Juliet’s Tomb and Juliet’s House on one VeronaCard

The tomb and Juliet’s House are both on the VeronaCard, so one card covers both stops on the Juliet trail. Here you just walk in with it; at the house you book a time first, even with the card.

The card also covers the Arena, Castelvecchio and the Lamberti Tower.

Inside the Museo degli Affreschi: frescoes from Verona’s walls

The convent around the tomb is now a museum of frescoes detached from the walls of Verona’s churches and palaces, from the 10th to the 16th century. The oldest is a Maiestas Domini, Christ in majesty, dated 996, and there’s a St Michael from the 12th century.

The 14th century gets a whole cycle, grouped around the painter Altichiero da Zevio, with his arches of 1364-68 from the Loggia del Consiglio, and Turone de Maxio from around 1360. Later rooms bring 16th-century work by Francesco Morone and the school of Giulio Romano, and a few Roman amphorae.

Look out for Jacopo Ligozzi’s cavalcade of Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement VII, from around 1575, a long procession of horsemen. Since February 2026 the museum has also paired Giulio Carpioni’s painting Venus and Adonis with Brusasorci’s frescoes from the Palazzo Fiorio della Seta, in an exhibition called Divine passioni that the ticket includes.

When Juliet’s Tomb is open, and the guided visits

On Sunday 15 November and Sunday 13 December 2026, both at 11:00, the museum runs guided visits of its collections at no extra cost. You book them by phone with the museums’ education office, on 045 8036353, and pay only the entry.

Finding Juliet’s Tomb on Via Luigi da Porto

The museum is at Via Luigi da Porto 5, off Via del Pontiere, and the street carries the name of the writer whose novella started the whole story.