Basilica di Sant’Anastasia Historical Timeline

Origins

The Dominicans received the site in the thirteenth century and began building in 1290, on the scale their preaching mission called for -- these were orders that needed room for crowds, not monastic seclusion.

Turning points

Construction ran on into the fifteenth century. The body of the church was substantially complete by then; the facade never was, and remains bare brick above its carved lower portal.

Influential people

Pisanello painted the Pellegrini Chapel fresco around 1436-38, at the height of a career spent moving between the courts of northern Italy.

Cultural evolution

The great Veronese families filled the church with chapels, tombs and altarpieces through the Renaissance, which is why the interior is far richer than the exterior suggests.

Present-day significance

Napoleonic suppression ended the Dominican community here. The church is now part of Verona's UNESCO listing and is maintained largely through the city's combined church ticket.