đ Where: Borgo Trento district, opposite Castelvecchio â Verona
đī¸ What: Nineteenth-century Austrian military complex in neo-Romanesque style, built between 1854 and 1861 at the behest of Field Marshal Radetzky. Today partially restored, with exhibition spaces and the swimming pool park
đ When to visit: All year round; the park and the outdoor pool are freely accessible. For events and indoor exhibitions, check the calendar of the Comune di Verona
âšī¸ Info: The outdoor area is freely accessible at no charge. For information on events and special openings: comune.verona.it
A corner of Verona that few tourists really know about
Verona is not just the Arena, Piazza delle Erbe and Juliet's balcony. Those who take the time to explore the Borgo Trento district, just a few minutes from the historic centre, will come across one of the most fascinating yet least celebrated architectural complexes in the city: the Austrian Arsenal, an imposing nineteenth-century military establishment that tells a fundamental chapter of Verona's history â that of the Habsburg occupation and the strategic role the Scaliger city played at the heart of nineteenth-century Europe.
It is neither a forgotten ruin nor a dusty museum: the Arsenal is a living place, in constant transformation, well worth discovering both for the quality of its architecture and for the extraordinary historical context it represents.
The history of the Austrian Arsenal
The history of the Arsenal begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when Verona was one of the cornerstones of the so-called Quadrilatero, the defensive system through which the Austrian Empire controlled northern Italy. The city â protected by the fortresses of Peschiera, Legnago and Mantua and connected directly to Austria via the Brenner road â was the main military depot of the Lombardy-Venetia Kingdom. In this context, Field Marshal Josef Radetzky wanted to equip Verona with a structure equal to its role: an artillery arsenal capable of supporting an army of about one hundred thousand soldiers.
The project was entrusted to Major Conrad Petrasch, director of the Verona office of the Military Engineering Corps, who in 1854 drew up a plan probably inspired by the Vienna arsenal, built in the same years. Work was completed in 1861, with a complex extending over almost 7 hectares in the Campagnola area, a flat zone in a bend of the Adige, chosen strategically for its difficult accessibility in the event of a city uprising and for its proximity to the routes connecting to Austria.
The result is a group of nine buildings arranged symmetrically around three large courtyards, enclosed by a rectangular boundary wall with cylindrical guard towers at the four corners. At the centre of the southern side stands the Command Pavilion, the most representative building of the complex, with its neo-Romanesque architecture â the so-called Rundbogenstil, or "round-arch style" â expressed in an elegant polychrome facing of tuff and brick. The entrance portal is topped by a large four-light window, while the side towers feature two-tier mullioned windows and crenellated crowning: an aesthetic that recalls Verona's medieval past while remaining fully nineteenth-century in character.
The three internal courtyards were functionally separated: in the central courtyard were the workshops of blacksmiths, cartwrights, carpenters and saddlers; in the side courtyards were the warehouses and stables. The wide open spaces, conceived as proper internal gardens, ensured ventilation and healthy conditions, and helped to give the complex an almost urban character, with streets, squares and cobbled paths suitable for the passage of heavy artillery wagons.
The Twentieth Century
During the twentieth century, the Arsenal went through alternating phases. The bombings of the Second World War seriously damaged the Command Pavilion and some of the courtyard buildings, leaving entire sectors of the complex abandoned for years. After the war, the decline seemed unstoppable: the master plan even called for the demolition of the entire complex to make way for a public park. Fortunately, that prospect never materialised.
In 1995 the Comune di Verona acquired the area from the Italian Army, and in 1999 it launched an international competition for its redevelopment, won by the studio of British architect David Chipperfield. Although the complete masterplan has not been realised for economic reasons, one of the planned interventions has been carried out: the restoration of the large swimming pool, an 1864 military facility built in the same Campagnola area. The pool has been transformed into a shallow reflecting basin, lined with black basalt slabs, set within a public park inaugurated in September 2011. Today it is one of the most popular gathering places in the neighbourhood, frequented especially in the warm seasons by families and residents.
The Arsenal as a whole is still in a phase of redefinition, with some pavilions used for temporary exhibitions and events. Among the spaces already given a new function, the church of San Francesco d'Assisi stands out, created in the 1980s in one of the buildings of the eastern courtyard, restored to a design by the Veronese architect Libero Cecchini.
Walking along the perimeter of the Arsenal, or pausing by the reflecting pool opposite Castelvecchio, means experiencing first-hand a Verona different from the one on postcards: a city that has known how to be, over the centuries, much more than a romantic destination.