Piazza delle Erbe is one of the most photographed places in Verona, and yet there is a corner that often does not get all the attention it deserves: the north-eastern side of the square, where the Case Mazzanti stand. A group of terraced buildings which, with their façades frescoed in the sixteenth century, still today offer an authentic glimpse into Veronese Renaissance civic architecture.
It is not a noble palace or a church: these are buildings born to house shops, merchants and homes, and yet their history takes root all the way back to the Roman era. Right in the cellars of the complex, the remains of the ancient paving of the city Forum were found, located about four metres below the current level, together with the foundations of a large Roman building that shared the same perimeter.
From grain store to Renaissance monument: the history of Mazzanti houses
From Roman origins to the Scaliger Seigniory
After probable medieval abandonment — and perhaps because of the 1117 earthquake, which caused serious damage throughout the city — the area was rebuilt in the late Middle Ages. It was probably Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona between 1277 and 1301, who commissioned the renovation of the complex: the upper part of the building was destined to serve as a public grain store, so much so that it was called in documents of the time Domus Bladorum. On the lower floor, on the other hand, were shops, sales counters and the homes of merchants — a lively commercial hub in the heart of the city.
The complex was connected to the nearby Domus Nova by a raised bridge crossing the so-called Volto Barbaro, still passable today and one of the most fascinating passages between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori.
Matteo Mazzanti and the Renaissance transformation
The real turning point came in the early decades of the sixteenth century, thanks to Matteo Mazzanti, a merchant who had progressively acquired shops and apartments in the complex. During the brief rule of Emperor Maximilian of Austria over Verona (1509–1516), he managed to enlarge his properties further, also buying the public premises ceded by the sovereign to his lieutenant Giovanni Gonzaga.
The Mazzanti invested large sums in restoring and decorating the building: by 1529 the façade on the square had already been embellished with quadrangular panels. A few years later the Mantuan painter Alberto Cavalli, a pupil of Giulio Romano, was called in to decorate the corner section facing Corso Santa Anastasia and to insert figures into the geometric spaces already created. To commemorate the undertaking, Matteo Mazzanti had a celebratory plaque placed there, still visible today on the façade.
After the death of the Mazzanti heirs, overwhelmed by financial difficulties, the complex was put up for auction and divided among numerous private owners. From that moment on there were no further significant unitary interventions, and the building progressively lost its homogeneous appearance.
Frescoes: a surviving heritage
What makes the Mazzanti houses truly extraordinary are their 400 sq m of frescoed surface on the main façade: one of the few surviving examples of that tradition that had made Verona a true urbs picta — a painted city. From the fifteenth century onwards, the decoration of external façades became an identifying feature of Veronese architecture, with results hard to match in other Italian cities for quantity and grandeur.
Cavalli's frescoes are today in good condition, thanks also to restorations carried out in the 1980s and then, more substantially, between 2020 and 2022: on that occasion, four central arches of the first-floor portico, long walled up, were reopened, returning the loggia to its original appearance.
The lodge and the well
On the ground floor, the façade is marked by a portico with sixteen Renaissance columns and segmental arches: each column differs from the others in height and capital, many bearing the coats of arms of ancient shops. At the rear, along Via Mazzanti, lies one of the lesser-known jewels of Veronese Renaissance: a well in red Verona marble, decorated with acanthus leaves and coats of arms — including the Lion of Saint Mark — dating back to 1478 and described by historian Luigi Simeoni as the most beautiful Renaissance well in the city.
The Mazzanti houses deserve much more than a hastily taken photograph crossing the square: they are an open history book about one of Verona's most lived-in places.