arch of gavi

The Arch of the Gavi is an elegant Roman honorary arch built in the 1st century AD by the powerful Veronese Gavia family to celebrate their social status and their loyalty to Rome. Unlike imperial arches, this is a private arch commissioned by wealthy citizens, an exceptional fact in Roman architecture. The architect Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo signed the work with an inscription, a rare example of professional recognition in antiquity.

The arch originally stood at the start of the Via Postumia, just outside the city walls. In 1805 Napoleonic troops dismantled it to widen the military road towards the castle. The stone blocks were set aside and miraculously preserved for over a century.

In 1932, during the Fascist regime, the arch was rebuilt stone by stone in its current position next to Castelvecchio, using all the original recovered blocks. Today the Arch of the Gavi stands elegantly beside the Scaliger Bridge, creating a striking dialogue between Roman and medieval architecture. The single-fornix structure in white stone is adorned with Corinthian columns and a dedicatory inscription mentioning four members of the Gavia family, probably brothers who funded the work.

The Gavia family and the architect Vitruvius Cerdone in the first century

The Gavia family was one of the most influential in Roman Verona, with members who held public offices and owned vast agricultural lands in Valpolicella. The arch was probably commissioned around 50-100 AD to celebrate the gens Gavia and grant it perpetual visibility at the city's entrance. The inscription mentions four Gavii: Lucius, Marcus, Caius and Publius, probably brothers or cousins.

The most extraordinary aspect is the signature of the architect Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo, engraved on the entablature: "L. VITRUVIUS L. F.

CERDO ARCHITECTUS" (Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo, son of Lucius, architect). This is one of the rarest surviving cases of a Roman architectural signature, in an era when architects were considered mere craftsmen rather than artists. The signature suggests that Vitruvius Cerdo was particularly proud of this work and that the Gavia family recognised his talent.

In 1805, during the Napoleonic occupation, the French general decided to dismantle the Arch of the Gavi because it obstructed the passage of heavy artillery heading to Castelvecchio. Unlike other Roman monuments destroyed without care, the arch was carefully dismantled block by block and the pieces were stored in the Verona Arena and later moved to Castelvecchio. For more than 120 years the blocks remained in storage, miraculously surviving wars, fires and attempts to reuse them as building material.

In 1932, during the Fascist twenty-year period that exalted Romanity, the architect Antonio Avena led the scientific reconstruction of the arch in its current position, next to Castelvecchio. Each stone was repositioned following the sixteenth-century drawings of Andrea Palladio and the nineteenth-century archaeological measurements. The result was a masterpiece of archaeological restoration that returned to Verona one of its most elegant Roman monuments.

The new location of the Arch of the Gavi, although not the original one, creates a striking architectural dialogue between Roman classical elegance and the medieval might of Castelvecchio and its fortified bridge. Tourists visiting the Castelvecchio museum inevitably pass next to the arch, creating a historical itinerary that spans over a thousand years of Veronese architecture. The arch is particularly photogenic at sunset, when the white stone takes on shades of pink and gold, and at night with the artistic lighting that highlights the Corinthian columns and the decorations.

Many visitors stop here to admire the architectural details: the finely sculpted Corinthian capitals, the upper attic with the dedicatory inscription, and the fornix perfectly proportioned according to Vitruvian canons. The Arch of the Gavi has become a symbol of Verona's ability to preserve and enhance its Roman heritage despite historical vicissitudes.