If you want to enjoy the real medieval atmosphere, you will find the Church of Santa Maria Antica at the end of Piazza dei Signori. It was built in the eighth century as a Lombard church but was destroyed by an earthquake in 1117. It was then rebuilt and consecrated in 1185 and it became the private chapel of the Scaliger family.
It was restored several times and, in the nineteenth century, it finally went back to its mystical essential structure.
Almost suffocated by buildings placed at the side of the majestic Scaliger Tombs, the little church is characterised, on the outside, by alternating layers of red bricks and stone. The side entrance door is dominated by the magnificent Tomb of Cangrande Della Scala consisting of a sarcophagus on which a recumbent effigy statue of the lord, characterised by an unusual smile lies.
The inside, divided into three aisles in Romanesque style, is austere and essential. Some frescoes and marble tombs dating back to the early 14th century decorate the bare walls, while, protected by a trapdoor, we find the remains of the pavement in white and black tiles of the tenth century.