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Palaces and Gates

Sanmicheli's Verona, and the Roman Gate That Came First

Porta Nuova • Porta Borsari • Palazzo Bevilacqua

Walk the Corso Get Early Access

🏛️ Walking the Corso

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Two Gates, Ten Minutes Apart

Porta Nuova south of the centre, Porta Borsari in the middle of it

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Nothing to Pay

All of it is street architecture, seen from the pavement

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Late Afternoon

The Corso runs east to west, so the fronts light up towards evening

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One Straight Line

Porta Borsari to Piazza delle Erbe is the old Roman road

🧭 Why Visit

Most people see Verona between the Arena and Juliet's courtyard and never look at the walls that made the place. Verona was a fortress city for two thousand years, and the two things that survive best from that are its gates. One is Roman and one is Renaissance, and they are ten minutes apart on foot. In between, the Corso is lined with palace fronts that reward looking up.

🏛️ A Little History

Michele Sanmicheli was born in Verona in 1484 and died there in 1559, and in between he became chief military engineer to the Republic of Venice, surveying and fortifying its territories as far as Corfu and Crete. Verona was his home ground. He built Porta Nuova from 1532, Porta San Zeno in 1541 and Porta Palio in 1547, and he designed Palazzo Bevilacqua on Corso Cavour in the same year he started the first gate. Porta Borsari had already been standing for fourteen centuries when he began.

💡 Did You Know?

Porta Nuova does not look the way Sanmicheli left it. The Austrians cut two large arches through the city facade in 1852 to let carts through, opened the right hand one in 1854 and the left hand one in 1900. The rhythm he designed, one central portal between two smaller openings, is still legible underneath, but you have to ignore the holes to see it.

Along the Corso

Gates, Fronts and Doorways

The two gates, the palace Sanmicheli designed, and the ordinary buildings between them.

Porta Borsari, the Roman gate on the Corso in Verona, its white limestone front rising above the street
Porta BorsariThe Roman gate, first century AD, still spanning the street it was built to control. Two tiers of windows above the arches, and Latin cut into the stone recording a rebuilding in 265.
The facade of Palazzo Bevilacqua on Corso Cavour in Verona, alternating tall and short upper windows above a rusticated ground floor
Palazzo BevilacquaSanmicheli designed it in 1532 for the Bevilacqua family. The upper windows alternate tall and short across the front, which stops a long facade from reading as a wall.
The rusticated corner of Palazzo Bevilacqua in Verona with its carved Greek key frieze and street sign
The Rusticated CornerBlocked stone at the corner and a Greek key band cut into it. The orange sign is the city's own, and it is how you know you are looking at the right building.
A Venetian Gothic facade in the old town of Verona, trilobate windows and carved balconies above a stone portal
A Gothic FrontOchre stucco, a three light window with twisted colonettes, two balconies with carved tracery. Nobody puts this on a postcard and it is better than most things that are.
A carved saint standing under a Gothic canopy on a column in Verona
A Saint on a ColumnA carved figure under a little Gothic canopy, up on a column against the sky, with somebody's shuttered windows behind it.
A Baroque balcony in Verona planted with red geraniums below shuttered windows
A Balcony of GeraniumsCarved window heads, a stone balustrade, and a row of geraniums that somebody waters. Verona is lived in, which is the difference between it and a monument.

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Seeing Them Properly

  • Walk through Porta Borsari rather than photographing it from across the road. It is a gate, and the point of a gate is the moment you pass under it.
  • Porta Nuova reads best from the outside, on the countryside face, which is the one Sanmicheli finished first and the one the Austrians left alone.
  • On Corso Cavour, cross to the far pavement before looking at Palazzo Bevilacqua. The upper windows alternate tall and short on purpose and you cannot see the pattern from directly underneath.
  • Look up between the famous things. The best doorways, balconies and window surrounds on this walk belong to buildings nobody has heard of.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Porta Borsari?
The gate standing today is first century AD, built over an earlier one from the first century BC. A Latin inscription on it records a rebuilding in 265 AD under the emperor Gallienus, when the walls were strengthened.
Why is it called Borsari?
From the bursarii, the men posted there to collect the toll on goods coming into the city. The Roman name was Porta Iovia, after a small temple to Jupiter beside it.
Can I go inside any of them?
Not really, and that is the point. These are facades and gateways meant to be met in the street. Palazzo Bevilacqua is in office use and Porta Nuova stands in the middle of a road junction.
Which road runs through Porta Borsari?
The Via Postumia, the Roman road from Genoa to Aquileia. Inside the walls it became the decumanus maximus and it is still the line you walk to reach Piazza delle Erbe.

Explore More of Verona

📷 Gallery

Santa Anastasia

Verona's Largest Church, and Its Most Painted

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Castelvecchio

Medieval Fortress & Renaissance Art Museum

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San Fermo Maggiore

Two Churches, One Building, One on Top of the Other

📷 Gallery

Piazza delle Erbe

Verona's Ancient Market Square

📷 Gallery

Verona Cathedral

The Duomo, and the Church Everyone Walks Past

Juliet's Tomb

The Romantic Crypt of Shakespeare's Star-Crossed Lovers

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