Verona - San Zeno Maggiore

To the north of San Bernardino is the large Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore (11th-12th century), perhaps the finest Romanesque building in northern Italy, with a beautiful main front flanked by a slender Romanesque campanile (1045-1178) and the battlemented defensive tower (14th century) of a former Benedictine abbey. The bronze doors have Romanesque reliefs with Biblical and other scenes. The interior boasts an unusual timber roof (14th century) and beautiful Romanesque capitals, and in the aisles are frescoes of the 13th-15th centuries. In the choir can be seen a marble figure, ascribed to the 14th century, of St Zeno, bishop of Verona (d. 380), whose reliquary is in the crypt. On the high altar is a "Madonna with Saints" by Mantegna (1456-59) and on the north side of the church an elegant Romanesque cloister.