Scaliger Tombs

Are the Scaliger Tombs open? Not until summer 2027

In 2026 the Scaliger Tombs opened on Saturdays and Sundays, plus 15 August, and the last day was Sunday 1 November. For 2027 the city says only that they open “in the summer period”, with no dates yet. While the enclosure is shut, the city doesn’t say how much of the tombs can be seen from the street.

Entry to the Scaliger Tombs: a same-day civic ticket or the VeronaCard

The tombs themselves cost nothing, but there’s no ticket for them and no ticket office. You get in with a ticket already used that day at another of Verona’s civic museums, such as Castelvecchio, the fresco museum at Juliet’s Tomb, the Roman Theatre’s archaeological museum or the Museo Lapidario Maffeiano, or with a valid VeronaCard. The Lamberti Tower’s ticket doesn’t count, because the tower isn’t one of the civic museums.

The VeronaCard gets you in too, though it adds nothing here that a civic ticket from the same day wouldn’t. Where it helps is the rest of your day, since the card also includes Castelvecchio and the Arena.

The five Scaliger tombs, from Alberto I to Cansignorio

The Della Scala, or Scaligeri, ruled Verona in the Middle Ages, and they buried their lords here, in a small enclosure by Santa Maria Antica. The fence around it is worked with ladders, the scala of their name and the emblem of their house, and inside, the sarcophagi stand on the ground or raised up on canopied monuments.

Cangrande I’s tomb is the one above the church door. He was “il magnifico Signore”, lord of Verona from 1309 to 1329, who welcomed Dante to his court. His figure lies on the sarcophagus inside a Gothic tabernacle that stands on armoured dogs, the work of the designer of the church of Sant’Anastasia. Above it, a canopy holds his statue on horseback, now a copy.

Mastino II’s tomb, begun in 1345, was once painted and gilded, with statues of the four Virtues at its corners and its own horseman on top, also a copy today.

The richest is Cansignorio’s, of 1375, designed by the sculptor Bonino da Campione, with warrior saints, the evangelists, the Virtues and the apostles, and a large statue of Cansignorio on horseback at the top. The other two are the sarcophagus of Alberto I, from 1301, and the hanging tomb of Giovanni della Scala, finished in 1359 by Andriolo de’ Santi. That one stood in the church of San Fermo Maggiore until 1400.

Cangrande I and Mastino II: the original statues at Castelvecchio

The horsemen on top of the tombs of Cangrande I and Mastino II are copies, and the originals are in the Castelvecchio Museum. Cangrande I came down in 1909 and is now the centrepiece of the museum, on a concrete plinth designed by the architect Carlo Scarpa, while Mastino II is in the castle’s clock tower.

On a summer weekend, seeing the copies here and the originals there on the same day also takes care of the entry rule, since your Castelvecchio ticket is the civic ticket that opens the tombs.

Finding the Scaliger Tombs at Santa Maria Antica

The tombs are at Via Santa Maria Antica 4, beside the church, close to Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, the two squares UNESCO picks out in its listing of Verona. There’s no cloakroom, and small dogs can come in a carrier.