THE FACTS ABOUT SEE: SAN ZENO MAGGIORE

Italy

The most ornate Romanesque church in northern Italy, San Zeno Maggiore was built to house the shrine of Verona's patron saint in 1125-35. It is, by far, the city's most famous religious building and tradition has it that it was in its crypt that Romeo and Juliet got married. The bell tower is impressive and one of the original bells - dating back to the 1140s - still remain. On the inside, there is plenty to discover, especially in the crypt where St Zeno, the first bishop of Verona lies in a sarcophagus, surrounded by other distinguished citizens through the centuries. The polyptych on the altarpiece is made up of both original paintings by Andrea Mantegna and modern replacements of the paintings removed by the French when Napoleon's army occupied Verona in 1797. WHERE? Via Gallica, Verona