Castelvecchio with its Venetian, French and Austrian influences

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Hey Hiveians and Steemians,

one of many beautiful places I saw in Italy was Verona. About my first experiences and days there I have already made two posts, feel free to have a look at them if you like. In Verona a friend and I stayed in a hostel and from Verona we traveled to different cities and places in the north of Italy. That also worked out pretty well, we took a bus to Milan and went to Verona by train. The transport network in the north of Italy has adapted quite well to the tourism I would say.

But today I want to stay in Verona for the time being. What I can recommend to everybody here: A guided tour of the city. Especially in a city like Verona, which has a lot of history to offer, it is almost a must.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the "organization" with which we did the city tour. The guided tour was completely free of charge and was done on a voluntary basis by a local woman who lived in Verona. At the end of the guided tour mna could leave her a drink if you wanted. The tour was really good and a lot of fun, if you want to do the same tour you can go to the tourist office (also located at the big arena of Verona) and ask for the free tour, they will know what they mean.

All the sights that you have visited with the city tour can hardly be packed into one single mail - that's why I will tell you here about the single sights in a step-by-step manner. Because I always think it is nice if you get at least some background information about the individual sights and look a little "deeper".

But now to the Castelvecchio:

The Castelvecchio was built in the 14th century under Cangrande (the "Great Dog"). Part of the city wall already existed at that time and was simply integrated into the massive brick building complex.

Cangrande II belonged to the family della Scala (Scaglier), who ruled Verona at that time. Cangrande himself is described as a cruel and tyrannical ruler. Also part of the fortification is a massive bridge over the Adige river (first picture). The bridge is called Ponte Scaligiero and was supposed to secure an escape route from the castle. During our tour we also crossed the bridge, which you can see in the second picture. From there we had a great view out of relatively small "windows" to the river Adige.

The building, the bridge and the walls of the castle are made of large medieval bricks. There is also a surrounding wall and 6 towers. What we particularly liked: Once again the architecture, the battlements of the perimeter wall. The merlons used to be used to defend against long-range weapons from attackers. On the second picture you can see them well.

The museum can be reached via a freely accessible inner courtyard. From here you have a beautiful view of the Castel.

Cangrande only ruled for a short time. He was assassinated and only a few decades later the reign was replaced by other rulers, such as the Venicians, French and Austrians. The new rulers rebuilt the castle by making changes. Their influence and the respective epoch can be easily understood by looking at the building, as some parts were simply added.

Napoleon, for example, had the battlements cut. But during the Second World War the bridge was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt true to the original.

The Castelvecchio is well-known for its museum. To be honest, we have not visited the museum at the moment, but this was mainly due to the tight program of the city tour. But those who had time and desire should visit it in any case. The Castelvecchio in Verona accommodates a museum with exhibits from the 7th - 17th century. The silverware from the 7th century and paintings by Rubens, Veronese and Tintoretto are specially remarkable. Just the right thing for art lovers!

I hope you enjoyed my post and you are as excited as I am about my next post from Italy. I honestly don't know where to start - we have seen so much in Italy even we just stayed for a week!

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