San Tomaso Becket

About

The Church of San Tomaso Becket, better known as the Church of San Tomaso Cantuariense, is a Catholic place of worship located near the historic center of Verona, just across the Ponte Nuovo del Popolo. It is dedicated to the English saint Thomas Becket, who was murdered in 1170 because of his aversion to Henry II of England. During the Late Middle Ages there were two churches in the area: one, older, dedicated to Thomas Becket, the second dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate and next to which stood a Benedictine monastery. In the early 15th century, the Carmelites decided to proceed with the expansion of the second one, thus laying the foundation for the present building, which would take its name from the one of St. Thomas, which was torn down. According to an inscription on the facade, construction began around 1449, continuing, not without financial difficulties, until 1504, the year of its consecration. With the arrival of Napoleon the church was used as an infirmary for French troops, and in 1805 the convent was finally suppressed. Under subsequent Austrian rule the cloister was partially demolished and many of the former convent premises used as a military prison. It was necessary...

An 8th-century document has long suggested that a primitive early Christian church stood on the present site since the early Middle Ages, however, more careful studies have challenged this theory. For the first certain mention of a religious building in the area, one must rely on a papal bull issued in 1185 by Pope Lucius III in which reference is made to “ unam capellam Sancti Thomae in Insula veronensi sitam,” that is, of a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas and located in the Isolo of Verona. The "Isolo" is an area of the city that was once located between the bed of the Adige River and one of its secondary canals thus making it a true island; with the construction of the walls on the Adige following the flood of 1882, the secondary canal was interrupted and drained and thus the Isolo ceased to exist. The St. Thomas referred to, however, is Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in the Cathedral in 1170 and proclaimed a saint three years later by Pope Alexander III. The decision to dedicate the building to the English saint was probably due to Bishop Adelard of Verona, his fervent devotee.

Next to this early church also stood a Benedictine monastery dependent on the Abbey of Villanova, located near San Bonifacio. In the early fourteenth century, members of the Order of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, commonly called Carmelites, settled in the monastery in place of the Benedictines and, on March 5, 1351, obtained permission from Lord Pietro della Scala to build a new church nearby, on land donated by some wealthy citizens of the Isolo, to be dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate.

The following decades were, therefore, characterized by the presence of two churches, a situation that lasted until the beginning of the 15th century when it was decided to tear down the older church, that is, the one dedicated to St. Thomas, and to enlarge the later one dedicated instead to the Virgin Annunciate, which would then be the one that survives to this day. Therefore, the present church, although built on the basis of the one that was dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate (and is still officially dedicated to her) is known by the dedication of the earlier and demolished one of St. Thomas. The date of the beginning of construction is dated around 1449, and this information comes from an inscription, relating to the purchase of some stones, engraved in a pillar located to the right of the façade. The work did not progress quickly, and the Carmelites, who were in chronic financial difficulty, had to rely on the generosity of the parishioners to cover the costs of the construction. The municipality of Verona also had to share the burden by contributing, beginning in 1487, a sum of eight ducats per year. A private citizen, a certain Jacopo, son of Bongiovanni da Pesena, took charge of the construction of the side door as a testamentary bequest ; an inscription on the architrave recalls the fulfillment. Finally, on September 22, 1504, Marco Corner, apostolic coadjutor, was able to consecrate the new church.

For a long time it was believed that between 1545 and 1550 the Veronese architect Michele Sanmicheli had been entrusted with some plans for the architectural rearrangement of the church, which nevertheless remained on paper, including the division into three naves and the construction of a wide transept. More recent studies, however, have disproved this hypothesis, confirming that the architect was indeed interested in the church, but only spiritually, as this was where his family tomb was located and where he also wished to be buried.

With the arrival of Napoleon's troops in Verona at the end of the 18th century, the church was used as a hospital for French soldiers, and later, in 1805, the convent was finally suppressed. Between 1856 and 1857 the cloister was largely demolished and the remaining parts converted into a sacristy and oratory. At the height of Austrian rule part of these buildings were used as a garrison prison. Shortly after the annexation of Veneto to Italy, the church of San Tomaso was reopened for worship.

The gabled facade, which presumably remained unfinished due to the economic difficulties encountered during the building's construction, has a sober and bare appearance. In the center, the wide splayed portal, in late Gothic style, is composed of the main doorway surrounded by finely carved marble frames. The inscription on the entablature, dating from 1493, indicates that the jurist Cristoforo Lanfranchini dedicated it to Christ and the Virgin, suggesting that it was originally placed in another church and then moved there: further evidence of the financial straits that plagued its construction. The lunette contains an Annunciation of Mary by the twentieth-century artist Carlo Donati, which replaced the original attributed to Domenico Brusasorzi, which has been lost. At the top of the portal is a statue of Mary holding her blessed Son, while at the sides two more sculptures are placed in niches carved in the pilasters.

Above the portal, there is a circular rose window inscribed with a series of denticulated, ovoid and spiral decorations reminiscent of the Romanesque style, but in a clearly late Renaissance context.

On the north side there is a door framed by a marble jamb, on the architrave of which there is an inscription that tells how it was built thanks to a donation from a certain Jacopo, who took on this burden in order to respect his father's wishes. Above the architrave, the marble cornice continues, interrupted only by two 15th-century marble capitals, and forms a pointed arch set in a suspended prothyrum. On either side, two large biforas allow light into the interior.

At the same time as the church was built, the bell tower was also erected; it is believed to rest on the base of that of the earlier church dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate. Placed along the right side of the church, it was made of the same material, brick, as the main building. The tower ends with a conical spire that extends 18.4 meters and whose tip reaches the remarkable height of 60 meters. Simple in appearance, it has some Renaissance elements. The shaft is embellished with lesenes placed on the sides and in the center that are connected with Lombard bands. The belfry consists of round-arched biforas made of local pink marble. On the base is, set into the wall, a stone on which an epigraph is carved: “...IUS ECCLESIAE RECTOR... // (F)ECIT MCCCCCCLXXVIII.”

Housed inside the belfry are ten bells in the scale of D3, cast by the Cavadini firm in 1930, which are rung manually according to the Veronese bell ringing technique. These are renowned for their sound, considered to be precise and melodious, and replace six preceding ones in E3.

At the same time as the church was built, the bell tower was also erected; it is believed to rest on the base of that of the earlier church dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate. Placed along the right side of the church, it was made of the same material, brick, as the main building. The tower ends with a conical spire that extends 18.4 meters and whose tip reaches the remarkable height of 60 meters. Simple in appearance, it has some Renaissance elements. The shaft is embellished with lesenes placed on the sides and in the center that are connected with Lombard bands. The belfry consists of round-arched biforas made of local pink marble. On the base is, set into the wall, a stone on which an epigraph is carved: “...IUS ECCLESIAE RECTOR... // (F)ECIT MCCCCCCLXXVIII.”

Housed inside the belfry are ten bells in the scale of D3, cast by the Cavadini firm in 1930, which are rung manually according to the Veronese bell ringing technique. These are renowned for their sound, considered to be precise and melodious, and replace six preceding ones in E3.

The interior of the church has a single nave. The flooring is in red and white squares, except for that of the chancel. The ceiling, also paneled, is supported by wooden trusses with two columns. Lateral to the nave are eight Baroque altars, four on the right and four on the left, all set in Renaissance arches. The chancel is separated from the nave by three wide arches, of which the central one is markedly higher than the two side arches. In turn, the chancel is surrounded by four triumphal arches supported by as many columns embellished with Renaissance-style capitals, which are superimposed by large pulvini. A smaller arch marks the beginning of the apse.

At the entrance to the church, from the main doorway following the right side of the nave, there is, inside a niche, a baptismal font, originally made for the nearby church of Santa Maria Rocca Maggiore (now deconsecrated) and brought there after the 17th-century original was sold in 1904.

The first altar one comes across is the one belonging to the Dolcetti family, featuring a statue by Ugo Zannoni in which he depicted St. Joachim, St. Anne and the Virgin reading. However, this sculptural group was placed there only in 1909 to replace an earlier wooden statue of Mary Magdalene (now placed in the nearby altar of the Da Prato family), which, in turn, had taken the place of an altarpiece depicting St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi by the Vicenza painter Pietro Bartolomeo Cittadella. Immediately afterwards, also by Ugo Zannoni, the funeral monument of Michele Sanmicheli was inserted into the wall.

Continuing on, one encounters the Da Prato altar, characterized by a neoclassical-style frame that encloses a Baroque altarpiece, The Ecstasy of St. Mary, commissioned by Giacomo Dal Prato and signed and dated by Alessandro Turchi, in which one can see the contrast of a bright paradise populated by angels with the gloomy representation of the earthly world where Magdalene is found. On either side of the tympanum are two statues, made between the 19th and 20th centuries, representing angels, while above is the wooden sculpture of Magdalene, once on the Dolcetti altar. At the foot of the altar are the tombs of the patrons: Girolamo da Prato and his brothers Giacomo and Bonifacio.

The next altar, made in 1681 and named the altar of the Annunciate, is decorated with various Baroque elements, such as cherubs, mixtilinear and undulating planes. Two elegant Solomonic columns support an archway. Antonio Balestra is the author of the altarpiece, dated 1702, and also painted God the Father in the upper tondo. At the top is a statue dating from 1736 by Michelangelo Speranza, depicting St. John of Nepomuk, originally placed in the center of the nearby New Bridge and then moved to the church in 1801, when French and Austrian troops, who following the Treaty of Lunéville had partitioned Verona, had barricaded the bridge.

Further on, the altar of the confraternity of San Rocco houses an altarpiece by Girolamo dai Libri depicting Saints Roch, Sebastian and Job. This altar replaced an earlier one from the beginning of the 16th century in 1727. To its left is a statue by an anonymous artist, dated between the 15th and 16th centuries, depicting Our Lady and the Child. Finally, coming from the nearby former church of Santa Maria della Disciplina, is the Orti altar, located on the northern wall next to the chancel. It houses a wooden crucifix by an anonymous author from the late 14th century placed against a background in which the city of Jerusalem is painted, with the gloomy sky amplifying the tragic nature of the scene.

The large chancel of the church, accessed by passing a balustrade, houses the high altar made in the 18th century by Giuseppe Antonio Schiavi; of the original, however, only the mensa remains, consisting of an oval in which is carved The Prophet Elijah receiving nourishment from the angel. The altarpiece behind it, dated 1579, is the work of Veronese painter Felice Brusasorzi, who depicted Our Lady with the Child and Saints. Among the figures Brusasorzi painted are St. Thomas Becket (titular of the church), St. Francis, St. Mark, St. John the Baptist, and St. Albert depicted in the act of holding a scale model of the church itself.