The place correspond with the Forum of the Roman city, whose paving is now 3,50 m below ground level. Piazza delle Erbe today has a typical medieval spindle plan. The Roman forum was succeeded by the Platea Major (Great Square), which name it retained until the end of the 16th century. It is precisely ere that the testimony of different centuries are overlaid.
Casa Mazzanti
The 14th-century Casa Mazzanti, one of the few surviving frescoed houses od Verona.
On the other side the modern buildings have considerably enchroaced on the open space. The arcaded front of Casa Mazzanti are frescoed by the painter Alberto Cavalli, a pupil of Giulio Romano.
Palazzo and Torre del Comune
The Romanesque Palazzo del Comune has an 18th century Neoclassical side facing the Piazza itself. From it rises the Torre del Comune, better known in Verona as the Torre dei Lamberti, which has been open the visitors tanks the installation of a lift. The octagonal belfry built in 1462-1464 offers a magnificent panorama. Next to the Palazzo in Piazza delle Erbe, there is the Arco della Costa, so-called because of the cetacean rib (costa) hung there.
Torre dei Lamberti, Cortile Mercato Vecchio
Tel. 045.8032726
Opening time: 9.30-19.30 (on monday: 13.30-19.30)
Closing box office: 19.00.
The column of San Marco, Palazzo Maffei and the Gardello tower
The San Marco column stands before the baroque Palazzo Maffei, built for Marcantonio Maffei (1626-1630), completed in 1668. Besides the palazzo at the beginning of corso Porta Borsari rises the Gardello Tower, previosuly known as the Torre delle Ore, which Cansignorio had built in 1370.
Piazzetta IV Novembre and Domus Mercatorum
The Piazzetta IV Novembre on the other long side of the Piazza contains a monument by E. Girelli commemorating the victims of bombing during an air raid in the war of 1915-1918. There follows the Gothic Domus Mercatorum vbuilt in 1301 and lavishly restored in 1878.
Madonna Verona and Baldachin
Today the only Roman feature of the square is the female statue (by the sculptor Giovanni di Rigino, maybe) wich Cansignorio used to form the beautiful fountain in the centre of the Piazza in 1368. The sculpture, popularly known as the Madonna Verona, was placed atop a large marble basin from the Roman baths? In its hands is a scroll engraved with the motto of the first Commune: Est iusti latrix urbs haec et laudis amatrix.
The marble baldachin in the centre of the Piazza was used in the ceremonies of investiture of the main public offices. Near the north end of the Piazza is the column of San Marco, erected in 1523 as testimony to the city’s loyalty to the Venetian Republic, and its architect was Michele Leoni.
The Capitol
The Capitol, temple of the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, stood one of the long sides of the Forum where its remains were found in 1914 beneath the buildings on the nearby Piazzetta Tirabosco and San Marco ad Carceres. These remains consist of three large intercommunicating chambers, surrounded on three sides by a corridor.
