The church of St. Thomas Becket, better known as the church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, is a church located near the historic center of Verona, just across the Ponte Nuovo del Popolo. It is dedicated to the English saint Thomas Becket.
The present church, built by the Carmelites in the fifteenth century, stands in the place where two churces had been consecrated: one dedicated to St. Thomas Becket (1316), another to the Annunciation (1351). The structure looks like a mix between the traditional Veronese Romanesque and Gothic.
In 1545 (or 1550 ), the architect Michele Sammicheli was entrusted to carry on some projects of architectural reorganization of the church, which, however, remained unfinished. The facade is bare and unfinished, enhanced by a rose window and two mullioned windows. The portal was moved from the church of Santa Maria Mater Domini to its current position in 1518.
The bell tower, sixty meters high, was built in the late 1400s in the Romanesque style. It houses ten bells in the musical scale of Re3 waning (merged by the company Cavadini Vr in 1930), which are played manually using the Veronese technique of the bells concerts.
These bells are renowned among musicians for the sound, which is considered (by the act of testing) precise and melodious.
The interior of the church has a single nave, is paved with red and white squares with the exception of the chancel and the ceiling is covered with wood, trusses with two uprights and ceiling panels. There are eight altars, set in Renaissance arches.
The church houses the works of Paolo Farinati, Francesco Torbido, Girolamo Dai Libri, Antonio Balestra and Alessandro Turchi. There are also neo-classical mausoleums and a baroque organ played on December 27, 1769 by a young Mozart, who still bears the engravings made by the young musician on the wooden instrument.
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