Castelvecchio in Verona: museum, opening hours, tickets and Carlo Scarpa’s masterpiece

Castelvecchio is the most important military monument of Scaligeri rule in Verona: a fortress built in 1354–1356 that rises straight out of the Adige, with the Ponte Scaligero alongside it. Today it houses one of the most significant museums of medieval art in northern Italy, known worldwide for the architectural redesign carried out by Carlo Scarpa from the late 1950s in close collaboration with director Licisco Magagnato, and considered by many his absolute masterpiece. In 2026 the museum turns one hundred: to mark the anniversary, a new lighting system has been installed, renewing the dialogue between the architecture and the works on display.

For the history of the Scaligeri family and their rule over Verona, read our article: Medieval Verona and the Scaligeri.

Opening hours 2026

• Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00 (last entry 17:15)
• Monday: Closed
• Closing days: 25 December and 1 January
• Special openings: 1 June and 7 December 2026
• Ponte Scaligero: Free and open at all times, including outside museum hours
• Ticket office: On site or online at verona.midaticket.it (recommended)

Il museo è meno affollato nelle prime ore del mattino (10:00–11:30) e nei giorni feriali. L’estate porta più visitatori, ma Castelvecchio è in genere più tranquillo della Casa di Giulietta o dell’Arena. Il Ponte Scaligero al tramonto è uno degli scorci più fotografati di Verona: accessibile in qualsiasi momento, anche la sera.

Biglietti e prezzi 2026

A Castelvecchio Museum ticket (or a ticket to any other civic museum in Verona) also gives free entry to the Arche Scaligere on the same day. On top of that: on the first Sunday of every month from November to March, museum entry costs €1. The Arche are open to the public in the summer months. Worth planning the visit around.

What you see: the castle and the museum

The castle: the fortress and the Ponte Scaligero

Castelvecchio was built between 1354 and 1356 for Cangrande II della Scala, on earlier Roman fortifications. It served a double purpose — lordly residence and military stronghold — with one side facing the city and one facing the river, linked to the Ponte Scaligero to guarantee an escape route in the event of a revolt.

The Ponte Scaligero — free to cross — is one of the best-preserved medieval bridges in Europe. Seen from below and from the water while rafting on the Adige, it reveals proportions the street view never gives you. Walking across it offers one of the finest views of the river and of the fortress walls.

The museum: Carlo Scarpa and the collections

The museum’s collections cover medieval, Renaissance and modern art up to the eighteenth century, grown over time from a core of around two hundred works saved from the Napoleonic confiscations. The museum now displays 622 works across 29 rooms: paintings, sculpture, archaeological finds and arms. Specialist cabinets also hold coins and medals, drawings, prints and photographic plates.

Among architects and art historians the museum is famous above all for Carlo Scarpa’s intervention. The restoration and redesign, championed by director Licisco Magagnato and begun by Scarpa in the late 1950s, turned the fourteenth-century castle into a landmark of post-war Italian museum design. Scarpa did not separate the restoration of the building from the display of the works: he left the historical layers visible, the joints between different periods exposed, original materials set against bare concrete. The result is considered by many his absolute masterpiece.

The pivot of the whole design is the equestrian statue of Cangrande I della Scala, set on a raised platform designed by Scarpa that makes it visible from the courtyard, from the patrol walkways and from outside the castle through a slit in the wall. It is not a statue in a room: it is an architectural element in dialogue with all the space around it.

The route:

• Sculpture gallery (ground floor): sculptures dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth century
• Armoury (keep tower): arms and armour from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, Lombard and German in origin — helmets, swords, daggers, maces, halberds
• Reggia, first floor: detached frescoes, panels and canvases from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century; art of the Scaligeri court with works by Turone, Altichiero, Pisanello, Stefano, Michele Giambono; two Madonnas and Child by Giovanni Bellini; Mantegna, Liberale da Verona, Morone
• Reggia, second floor: detached frescoes, panels and canvases from the second half of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century
• Painting gallery (first floor, Napoleonic wing): canvases, panels and sculpture from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Veronese artists alongside Italian and foreign schools; Veronese, Tintoretto, Turchi, Tiepolo, Longhi, Caroto, Cavazzola
• Patrol walkways around the courtyard: views over the castle, the river and the city; open to the public

Is it worth the ticket? Yes, and not only for the works. Castelvecchio is one of those museums where the architecture is worth as much as the collection, if not more. People who study or love contemporary architecture come to Verona specifically to see Scarpa’s work. People who don’t know it discover it during the visit. Either way, it is worth every cent.

Getting to Castelvecchio

• On foot from Piazza Bra: 10–12 minutes west along Corso Cavour
• On foot from Piazza delle Erbe: 15 minutes
• Bus: AMT lines stopping on Corso Cavour
• Nearest car park: Parcheggio Arsenale or Parcheggio Cittadella — restricted traffic zone (ZTL) in the historic centre
• Museum entrance: Corso Castelvecchio 2 — ticket office inside
• Ponte Scaligero: Direct access from the left-hand side of the castle, free

How long to allow for the visit

A quick visit to the castle and the museum’s main floors takes around 60–90 minutes. To see the whole collection including the walkways and the second floor of the Reggia, allow 2 hours. Anyone with a serious interest in architecture or medieval art can comfortably spend half a day there.

The Ponte Scaligero adds 15–20 minutes if you want to cross it slowly and take photographs. It is free and open at any time, so you can walk it before or after the museum, sunset included.

What to see nearby

Castelvecchio is a few minutes’ walk from other points of interest in the western part of the historic centre:

• Basilica di San Zeno (15 minutes on foot) — one of the most important examples of Italian Romanesque, with twelfth-century bronze doors and Mantegna’s triptych
• Lungadige Cangrande — the riverside walk heading north, less touristy and more local
• Porta Borsari (10 minutes east) — one of the two great Roman arches of the first century AD, on the line of the ancient Palio
• Arche Scaligere (15 minutes east) — free entry with your museum ticket, on the same day

See the full itinerary for visiting Verona in one day.