The Scaliger Tombs is a group of five Gothic funerary monuments in Verona, commemorating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century. The tombs, located in a court outside the church of Santa Maria Antica, are mostly freestanding open tabernacle-like structures rising high above the ground, with a sarcophagus surmounted by an elaborate baldachin, topped by a statue of the deceased, mounted and wearing armour. They separated from the street by a wall with iron grilles. The tomb of Cangrande I della Scala (c. 1330) was the first tomb built according to the will of the deceased, the most famous Scaliger ruler of the city. The designer was the architect of the church of Sant'Anastasia, who planned it in the shape of a Gothic tabernacle. Unlike the later tabernacles, it is built out from the church wall, over a doorway, rather than being free-standing.
The history of the free-standing Veronese tabernacle tombs opens about 1320 with the Castelbarco Monument. It is on top of the arch which, outside Sant'Anastasia, was the way into the Convento dei Domenicani. This supplied the basis of the monument of Mastino II della Scala (c. 1340), where we find the scheme enriched with reliefs above the arches, small tabernacles at the corners of the tomb, and a surrounding grille adorned with statuary. Bonino da Campione's tomb of Cansignorio della Scala (1376) is planned on the same lines, but with far greater complexity. The rectangular surround of the Mastino monument gives way to a six-sided grille, on the supports of which are tabernacles containing statues of warrior saints.
The tombs of Alberto II della Scala (1350s) belongs also to this group.
