Audio transcription
With its single nave, the upper church of San Fermo concludes in five apses and is marked by numerous altars and side chapels. The first one we find in the right corner of the transept is the sixteenth-century Alighieri Chapel, final resting place of the last direct descendants of Dante Alighieri, the author of the Divine Comedy: Pietro IV and Ludovico Alighieri.
Dante took refuge in Verona several times during his exile from Florence, and his son Pietro settled here permanently, with his descendants remaining in the city. The altarpiece from 1547 is by Giovanni Battista del Moro and depicts the Virgin and Child with Saints. Above the chapel are some splendid fourteenth-century frescoes depicting Franciscan stories, including the splendid scene of the Franciscan investiture of Saint Louis of Toulouse. In the nearby apse, under the crucifix, behind the grille, we will find a Lamentation by Giovanni di Rigino, one of Verona’s foremost fourteenth-century sculptors. Next to it is the Baroque Chapel of the Passion of Jesus, with the Crucifixion by Domenico Brusasorzi. Beneath the marble cladding, fourteenth-century frescoes were discovered, including a Saint George slaying the dragon.
