Story
CASERMA COMUNALE LISCA
(coomunalcaserne Lisca)
Chronology:
[a] sec. XII (half): construction of the municipal walls, to the left of the Adige, with the Porta Organa.
[b] 1388: the existence of a house leaning against the municipal walls, with a tower and stable, belonging to Guglielmo da Lisca is documented.
[c] sec. XV (half): probable transformations of the house from Lisca into a palace.
[d] 1852-1853: the destination of the building as a municipal barracks is documented.
Buyer / Planner:
[a] Free Municipality of Verona / unknown designer.
[b] Family from Lisca / unknown designer.
[c] Family from Lisca / unknown designer.
[d] Municipal Congregation / -
Property:
Private.
Description:
The ancient palace owned by the da Lisca family, located near the Porta Organa, in the Hapsburg era was rented to the Municipal Congregation of Verona, and converted to military use, as a barracks. The nineteenth-century structure recognizes the ancient architectural system of the fortified residence of the fifteenth-fifteenth century: in the north, the main building, raised on two floors adjacent to the municipal walls, in the corner retains the base part of the tower, reinforced by corner stones, originally higher than the residential part. A second body is grafted perpendicularly to the main building, also elevated over two floors, and arranged along the border, towards the channel of the Acqua Morta. Two other service buildings overlooked the internal courtyard; this was separated from the road by a high crenellated wall, in which there is a portal with a round arch, with a carved stone frame, and surmounted by the da Lisca coat of arms.
The façade of the main building, facing the courtyard, is characterized by the external staircase, with a single ramp, supported by two low-arched arches, and by the surviving mullioned windows, with a three-lobed arch. The prospect, in its current state, is the result of the complete nineteenth-century reconfiguration, following the elevation of a floor of the main body and the complete demolition of the wing adjacent to the Acqua Morta canal, probably carried out when the canal was buried, after the flood of 1882.
Conservation status:
The building, recently restored, is in good condition; the fifteenth-century mullioned windows are preserved. The tower, next to the Porta Organa, with the large corner stones of the base is still recognizable. The building on the western side of the courtyard was completely demolished.
Remarks:
The 14th century fortified house of the da Lisca family had been built adjacent to the outside of the walls (new wall), built in the mid-12th century by the Free Municipality of Verona. The new wall, attested to the bank of the Acqua Morta canal, extended to the Castle of San Pietro, including the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria in Organo, the church of San Giovanni in Valle, the church of San Zeno in Monte.
Two doors opened in the southern section: the first, perhaps a twin one, was located on the road to Vicenza; the second, called Porta Organa, at the road that connected the monastery of Santa Maria in Organo to its vast properties, located on the river bank (mills and right of rest), and towards Campo Marzo. A third door was open in the northern section, near the church of San Giovanni in Valle, at the road leading to the Fontana del Ferro.
The presence of a tower at the Porta Organa may suggest another possibility, in addition to that already formulated of the fortified residence. The construction of the tower in this position could be coeval with the municipal walls, or due to subsequent integration and strengthening of the urban gate. The construction of the city wall south of Campo Marzo, commissioned by Alberto I della Scala in the years 1287-1289, reduced the importance of the left bank city wall. Importance that disappeared completely after the construction of the grandiose turreted wall built by Cangrande I, in the years 1321-1324, which considerably enlarged the city to the left of Adige, reaching the south of Alberto I's wall, and north to the shore river near the church of San Giorgio. The shifting of the defense line made it possible to reconvert to civilian use and to build the land immediately outside the old municipal wall, between the Porta Organa and the Acqua Morta canal.
The installation of the da Lisca family in the district of San Vitale seems to have occurred in the 1920s and 1930s. The burial of Giovanni da Lisca, dated 1324, in Santa Maria in Organo, is the oldest indication. In 1388 Gian Galeazzo Visconti confirmed his ancestral house in the district of San Vitale as a fief to Guglielmo da Lisca. The property was equipped with a tower and a stable. The invent
