Goethe's Tree

The construction of the new land customs has a unique history: located behind the Church of San Zeno, it was built in record time, finishing in less than a year, in 1746.

The reason why the Customs House was built in the Venetian era was essentially the need to have a new customs clearance and health control point for goods that, going down along the banks of the Adige river, entered the territories of the Serenissima Republic, making Verona a fundamental access point for trade. Following the discovery of the Americas, the commercial power of the Serenissima was drastically reduced, shifting the great maritime flows towards the Atlantic and making the city of Verona an even more privileged area for trade between the commercial powers of the North, including England and Holland, and the realities of the Mediterranean area, earning the Republic great revenue from customs duties.

As early as the fifteenth century, the Veronese customs complex was already extremely articulated and controlled: together with the five existing customs of Isolo (where traffic arriving from the North was sorted), Ponte Navi (where traffic arriving from Venice was sorted), Badia (where the traffic connecting the Adriatic and Lombardy flowed), Piazza Erbe (for the transit of all goods by land) and the Mercato Vecchio (reserved for the silk trade), there was a strict health control, following the coming of the plague from Northern Europe; for this purpose, a new structure, the "Sborro", was created in correspondence with the former slaughterhouse, where the goods were brought in to be analyzed, disinfested and, if suspected, quarantined. Following the exponential increase of tradings, the structure was expanded in 1681 with the design and creation of the "Sporro Nuovo", more spacious.

The old health analysis facility was granted in use to merchants, who created a merchant warehouse and at the same time an abusive trading point, so much so that in the following decades the facility was cleared out and adapted to its original purpose. The creation of the River Customs was granted by the City Council to merchants on land near the Church of San Fermo, purchased by the monastic order, but with a clear political message: Verona can do it alone.

The City Council then approved a project by Count Alessandro Pompeii, a magnificent structure developed around a rectangular courtyard with a peristyle with a two-storey portico on the smaller sides and a single one, with high columns on the side facing the entrance. The construction was built with public money, unbeknownst to Venice. A new datial regulation is also decided. As soon as Venice heard about the construction, it has reacted with impetus and indignation, condemning a work that was born as a public structure but that would also be used by private individuals, that did not follow the fiscally established principles of simplicity and practicality and that would probably remain open on Sundays, thus giving rise to illegal trade. The thing that infuriated the Republic the most, however, was an inscription on the great portico: "Extraneis mercibus tutius ac commodius reponendis distrahendisque civitas veronensis a solo fecit", claiming the property and the merit of the construction, totally omitting any mention of the Serenissima Republic.

When the work was completed, the small harbour for mooring the boats was still missing. The River Customs was completed in 1792, when river trade had already entered into crisis.

The Land Customs House now houses the local section of the Superintendence for Artistic and Historical Heritage, while the River Customs House is the docking point for canoeists descending the Adige River, but it is also home to the Adige Museum, created by the Canoe Club Verona, in collaboration with the Salesian Institute Don Bosco, to tell the authentic story of the river, with archive photographs and a section dedicated to the testimonies of the athletes of the Canoe Club Verona who participated in the Olympics and in expeditions of exploration.