Museum of Frescos G.B. Cavalcaselle

The Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle Museum of Frescoes is a specialised museum dedicated to the conservation and exhibition of detached frescoes from churches, palaces and Veronese buildings demolished or renovated between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Located in the former Franciscan convent of San Francesco al Corso, the museum holds a precious collection of wall paintings from the 12th to the 16th century that document the evolution of Veronese painting from Romanesque to Renaissance. The name of the museum honours Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle (1819-1897), a Veronese art historian and pioneer in the study of Italian painting.

The museum complex also includes the evocative Gothic crypt housing the sarcophagus traditionally identified as Juliet's Tomb, a destination for pilgrimage by lovers from all over the world who come to pay homage to the tragic Shakespearean heroine. The fifteenth-century cloister of the convent offers an oasis of peace where one can admire the Franciscan architecture.

The Franciscan convent of San Francesco al Corso

The convent was founded in the 13th century by the Franciscan Minor Friars who settled in Verona a few decades after the death of Saint Francis (1226). The Franciscans chose this area, then peripheral to the city centre, to build their convent according to the order's ideal of poverty and simplicity. The conventual church, dedicated to Saint Francis, was built in Gothic style with a single nave, as was typical of mendicant churches, to favour preaching.

The cloister, built in the 15th century, is an elegant example of conventual architecture with round arches supported by paired columns and a central well. The friars lived in cells arranged around the cloister, dedicating themselves to prayer, study and assistance to the poor. The crypt beneath the church, built in medieval times, served as a burial place for the friars and for some Veronese noble families who were benefactors of the convent.

During the centuries of activity (13th-18th century), the convent became an important religious and cultural centre, with a library rich in manuscripts and a theological school attended by students from various cities of the Veneto. Important figures of the Franciscan order stayed at the convent and provincial chapters were held that brought together the representatives of the Venetian convents.

With the Napoleonic suppressions of religious orders (1797-1810), the convent was closed, the friars expelled and the buildings confiscated. The church was deconsecrated and used first as a military warehouse, then as a municipal depot. During the romantic nineteenth century, when the story of Romeo and Juliet became famous throughout Europe thanks to Shakespeare's drama, the red marble sarcophagus preserved in the crypt of the convent was identified with Juliet's Tomb.

This identification, although having no certain historical basis (Romeo and Juliet are legendary characters), captured the imagination of visitors and the crypt became a destination of romantic pilgrimage. Writers, poets and artists of the Grand Tour visited the tomb leaving dedications, flowers, love letters. Famous visitors include Lord Byron, Charles Dickens and many others who celebrated the visit to the tomb of the unhappy heroine in their writings.

The City of Verona, recognising the touristic and symbolic value of the place, arranged the crypt making it accessible to visitors and creating around it the myth of Juliet's Tomb that still today attracts thousands of people. Next to the sarcophagus, visitors leave love notes, dedications, promises, keeping alive a romantic tradition that has lasted for two centuries.

In 1973, the spaces of the former Franciscan convent were transformed into a museum dedicated to detached frescoes. The technique of detaching frescoes, developed in the 18th century and perfected in the nineteenth, makes it possible to remove wall paintings from buildings in demolition or serious decay and transfer them onto mobile supports to preserve them in museums. Verona, with its rich heritage of medieval and Renaissance frescoes, urgently needed a place to preserve these treasures.

The museum's collection was formed gradually through detachment campaigns conducted on churches, palaces and private houses that were demolished or renovated during the twentieth century. The frescoes come from buildings throughout the city and the Veronese territory, documenting the extraordinary artistic vitality of Verona from the 12th to the 16th century. The museum houses works by anonymous masters of the Veronese school, but also frescoes attributed to documented painters such as Stefano da Verona, Altichiero and Pisanello.

The museum was named after Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle (1819-1897), a Veronese, one of the fathers of modern Italian art history. Cavalcaselle devoted his life to the scientific study of Italian painting, cataloguing works, attributing authors and studying pictorial techniques. His monumental work, written together with the Englishman Joseph Crowe, remains a fundamental reference for art historians.

Naming the museum after Cavalcaselle means honouring the scientific method in the study and conservation of art.