Palazzo Canossa

Palazzo Canossa stands on Corso Cavour in Verona, beside the Adige and along the route of the ancient Via Postumia. Michele Sanmicheli designed this Mannerist residence for the Marquises of Canossa in 1527, replacing the defensive character of medieval palaces with light, symmetry, and open views.

A recessed portico leads through an atrium towards a courtyard facing the river. Smooth rusticated stone covers the ground floor, while arched windows and pairs of Corinthian pilasters organise the piano nobile above. An eighteenth-century balustrade crowns the façade with eight statues, including soldiers, allegorical figures, and a woman offering a bone to a dog, recalling the Canossa coat of arms. Two river-facing wings appeared in the seventeenth century, and the palace later hosted Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander I, and the Congress of Verona in 1822.

The exterior still carries traces of its turbulent history: one iron grille shows scars from Second World War bombing. Raphael’s Madonna della Perla once hung inside before leaving for the Gonzaga collection, while Gian Battista Tiepolo’s Apotheosis of Hercules was destroyed during the war. Today, you can see the palace from outside, where its statues, dog motifs, and layered façade preserve the family’s ambitions.