The precise details of Verona's early history remain a mystery. The
origin of the name Verona is also unknown. One theory is it was a city
of the Euganei, who were obliged to give it up to the Cenomani (550 BC). With the conquest of the Valley of the Po the Veronese territory became Roman (about 300 BC). Verona became a Roman
colonia in 89 BC, and then a
municipium in 49 BC; Verona had the franchise in 59.
The city became important because it was at the intersection of several roads. Stilicho defeated Alaric and his Visigoths here in 403. But, after Verona was conquered by the
Ostrogoths in 489, the Gothic domination of Italy began. Theoderic the Great was said to have built a palace there, and according to Irish legends that is what Verona was named after.
[clarification needed] It remained under the power of the Goths throughout the Gothic War (535–552), except for a single day in 541, when the Byzantine officer Artabazes
made an entrance. The defections that took place among the Byzantine
generals with regard to the booty made it possible for the Goths to
regain possession of the city. In 552 Valerian vainly endeavored to
enter the city, but it was only when they were fully overthrown that the
Goths surrendered it.
In 569, it was taken by Alboin, King of the Lombards,
in whose kingdom it was, in a sense, the second most important city.
There, Alboin himself was killed by his own wife in 572. The dukes of
Treviso often resided there. At Verona Adalgisus, son of Desiderius, in 774 made his last desperate resistance to
Charlemagne, who had destroyed the Lombard kingdom. Verona was then the ordinary residence of the kings of Italy, the government of the city becoming hereditary in the family of Count Milo, progenitor of the counts of San Bonifacio. From 880 to 951 the two Berengarii resided there. Otto I ceded to Verona the marquisate dependent on the Duchy of Bavaria.
The reign of his son Alberto as capitano (1277–1302) was one
incessant war against the counts of San Bonifacio, who were aided by the
House of Este. Of his sons, Bartolomeo, Alboino and Cangrande I, only the last shared the government (1308); he was great as warrior, prince, and patron of the arts; he protected Dante, Petrarch, and Giotto. By war or treaty, he brought under his control the cities of Padua (1328), Treviso (1308) and Vicenza.
Alberto was succeeded by Mastino II (1329–1351) and Alberto, sons of Alboino. Mastino continued his uncle's policy, conquering Brescia in 1332 and carrying his power beyond the Po. He purchased Parma (1335) and Lucca (1339). After the King of France, he was the richest prince of his time. But a powerful league was formed against him in 1337 – Florence, Venice, the Visconti, the Este, and the Gonzaga. After a three years war, the
Scaliger dominions were reduced to Verona and
Vicenza (Mastino's daughter Regina-Beatrice della Scala married to
Barnabò Visconti). Mastino's son
Cangrande II
(1351–1359) was a cruel, dissolute, and suspicious tyrant; not trusting
his own subjects, he surrounded himself with Brandenburg mercenaries.
He was killed by his brother Cansignorio (1359–1375), who beautified the
city with palaces, provided it with aqueducts and bridges, and founded
the state treasury. He also killed his other brother, Paolo Alboino.
Fratricide seems to have become a family custom, for Antonio (1375–87),
Cansignorio's natural brother, slew his brother Bartolomeo, thereby
arousing the indignation of the people, who deserted him when Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan
made war on him. Having exhausted all his resources, he fled from
Verona at midnight (19 October 1387), thus putting an end to the
Scaliger domination, which, however, survived in its monuments.
The year 1387 is also the year of the famous
Battle of Castagnaro, between Giovanni Ordelaffi, for Verona, and John Hawkwood, for Padua, who was the winner.
Antonio's son
Canfrancesco in vain attempted to recover Verona (1390).
Guglielmo (1404), natural son of Cangrande II, was more fortunate; with the support of the people, he drove out the
Milanese, but he died ten days after, and Verona then submitted to Venice
(1405). The last representatives of the Scaligeri lived at the imperial
court and repeatedly attempted to recover Verona by the aid of popular
risings.
From 1508 to 1517, the city was in the power of the Emperor Maximilian I. There were numerous outbreaks of the
plague, and in 1629–33
Italy was struck by its worst outbreak in modern times. In Verona an
estimated 33,000 people (of a total of 54,000) died in 1630–1631.
[2]
In 1776 was developed a method of bellringing called
Veronese bellringing art. Verona was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, but on Easter Monday the populace rose and drove out the French. It was then that Napoleon made an end of the Venetian Republic. Verona became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio in October, 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on January 18, 1798. It was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, but was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814, when it became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. In 1866, following the Six Weeks War, Verona, along with the rest of Venetia, became part of Italy.
The advent of
fascism added another dark chapter to the annals of Verona. As throughout Italy, the Jewish population was hit by the Manifesto of Race, a series of anti-Semitic laws passed in 1938, and after the invasion by Nazi Germany in 1943, deportations to Nazi concentration camps. An Austrian Fort (now a church, the Santuario della Madonna di Lourdes), was used to incarcerate and torture
allied troops, Jews and anti-fascists, especially after 1943, when Verona became part of the
Italian Social Republic.
As in Austrian times, Verona became of great strategic importance to the regime. Galeazzo Ciano, Benito Mussolini's son-in-law, was accused of plotting against the republic; in a show trial staged by the Nazi and fascist hierarchy at Castelvecchio (the
Verona trial),
Ciano was executed on the banks of the Adige with many other officers
on what is today Via Colombo. This marked another turning point in the
escalation of violence that would only end with the final liberation by
allied troops and partisans in 1945.
After World War II, as Italy entered into NATO, Verona once again acquired its strategic importance, due to its closeness to the
Iron Curtain. The city became the seat of SETAF (South European Allied Terrestrial Forces) and had during the whole duration of the
Cold War
period a strong military presence, especially American, which is
decreasing only in these recent years. Now Verona is an important and
dynamic city, very active in terms of economy, and also a very important
tourist attraction because of its history, where the Roman past lives
side by side with the Middle Age Verona, which in some senses brings
about its architectural and artistic motifs.
