ABSTRACT
This paper explores the medieval city of Verona and how it constructed its image as a second or new Rome through a series of ecclesiastical and liturgical projects. These include Verona’s adoption of a stational system in the 10th and 11th centuries, an act that ritualized Verona’s connection to the eternal city. In addition, Veronese church dedications and their architectural and geographic settings evoked Rome across the urban landscape. One interesting example is the church of Santo Stefano, an early Christian edifice that was granted a sort of martyrium status due to its location and the presence of the relics of several early Veronese bishops. In the late-10th century Santo Stefano’s east end was rebuilt with a two-storied ambulatory – an architectural feature that is anomalous both for Veronese architecture and for the architecture of medieval Italy. The paper discusses Santo Stefano’s 11th-century architectural programme, along with its position within the stational liturgies, as a programmatic attempt on the part of secular priests to allude to the ancient martyrial associations of the church, and to link it with its martyrial prototype, St Peter’s in Rome.
