Castelvecchio: Cortile

Scarpa fragments

Volume and Space: Scarpa's Sacello

Homage to the Square

Carlo Scarpa: the Sacello at the Castelvecchio

Crucifixion at the Castelvecchio

Above and below the Can Grande

Recent refurbishments at the Castelvecchio in Verona have allowed unexpected views of the museum's most famous exhibit, the equestrian statue of Can Grande della Scala.

A chapter on Scarpa's work at the Castelvecchio is included in MODERN ARCHITECTURE THROUGH CASE STUDIES 1945-1990

Eisenman at Castelvecchio: The Garden of Lost Footsteps

Scarpa's design of for the cortile of the Castelvecchio was supplemented during 2004-2005 with the installation of Peter Eisenman's "The Garden of Lost Footsteps". The project married the rhythm of the sequence of five sculpture galleries on the ground floor of the museum with Eisenman's familiar motifs of shifted and conflicting grids, and artificial excavation.

More Scarpa at Castelvecchio

Scarpa's spatial sense is more than adequately demonstrated by the space dominated by the effigy of the Veronese hero Can Grande della Scala. The statue had originally been placed over his tomb on a gate in the city, but after various proposals Scarpa chose to exhibit it as the key element of the museum visible from the courtyard and passed by the visitor’s route. It was placed on first floor level, so as to equate to its original elevated position but placed on a huge cantilevered pedestal with the result that it achieves a high degree of conceptual animation. Small bridges and balconies on either side allow for more intimate exploration of the sculpture, as Scarpa indicated in a sketch. But the treatment of the statue is only one element, for the great vertical space he occupies is as much on display as the warrior himself. The walls and roof of the block are successively delaminated, stucco removed to reveal stonework and brick, tiles removed to reveal copper and then the twin roof beams exposed to span onto the adjacent wall. This space with its highly articulated roof, akin to a medieval baldachino, announces the unity of sculpture and architecture which Scarpa sought for all the exhibits and museum spaces. That the visitor’s route should always pivot around this void is a testimony to Scarpa's skill in creating value by removing and revealing elements. The gesture of removal is a subtle reference to the recent history of the Castelvecchio since the ancient bridge adjacent to the Castelvecchio and the Can Grande space, the Ponte Scaglieri, was itself destroyed by Italian fascists in 1945, against the express command of the retreating German general Kesselring.

Transformations between exterior and interior: Scarpa at Castelvecchio

The work of Carlo Scarpa at the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona presents an abundance of opportunities to observe connections between exterior and interior, from the treatment of the courtyard to the positioning of the statue of Can Grande della Scala as a distant participant in the polyptych positioned contre jour in the upper gallery. The series of gestures create the sequence of the journey through the museum.