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Castelvecchio Museum and Bridge, Verona: Tickets, Hours and What to See

Museo di Castelvecchio e Ponte Scaligero

Updated 15 Nov 2026Facts verified Nov 20266 sourcesHow we research

The Castelvecchio Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:15, and is closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). One ticket covers the museum rooms and the walkway on the walls; it is free with the Verona Card, and single tickets are sold at the museum ticket office and online at verona.coopculture.it, the civic museums' official box office (Comune di Verona, 2026). The bridge, the Ponte di Castelvecchio, is a public crossing over the Adige and costs nothing.

The castle was built between 1354 and 1356 by the Della Scala lords of Verona, and the bridge in the same years. In 2026 the museum marks a century since it opened in 1926, and until 31 January 2027 it shows Titian's Venus with a Dog and an Organist, on loan from the Prado. This page covers tickets and hours, the collections and Carlo Scarpa's layout, the bridge, the centenary exhibitions and accessibility.

Castelvecchio tickets and the Verona Card

There is a single ticket for the museum: it includes the rooms of the collection and the walkway along the castle walls, and there is no separate ticket for the walls alone (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). Buy it at the ticket office at Corso Castelvecchio 2 or online at verona.coopculture.it, which the civic museums name as the official site for online tickets; the Comune warns that entry is not guaranteed with tickets bought through unofficial channels. The ticket office answers on +39 045 8062640 (Comune di Verona, 2026).

Castelvecchio is one of the 14 sights in the city with free entry on the Verona Card, which from 1 September 2026 costs 33 EUR for 24 hours and 38 EUR for 48 hours, including city buses. The card gives priority access only at the Arena, so at Castelvecchio card holders queue with everyone else (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026b). Whether the card pays for itself is worked out on our Verona Card page.

On the first Sunday of the month from November to March the civic museums charge 1 EUR. While the Titian exhibition is on, from 31 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, Castelvecchio's first-Sunday price is 4 EUR (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026c).

Castelvecchio opening hours

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. Last entry is at 17:15, 45 minutes before closing, so arrive earlier if you want time for both the rooms and the walls. It is closed on Mondays, on 25 December and on 1 January (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). The archived home page of the museum, from October 2026, gives the same hours (Comune di Verona, 2026).

There is an extraordinary opening on Monday 7 December 2026 (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

The bridge, the Ponte di Castelvecchio, is a public crossing over the Adige and has no opening hours or ticket. Inside the museum, part of the visit follows the walkway on the castle walls, which the same ticket covers (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a, 2026d).

What to see inside the museum

Castelvecchio is the city's main museum. Its 29 rooms hold medieval, Renaissance and later art up to the 18th century: Italian and foreign paintings, sculpture, archaeological finds, old weapons, miniatures, ceramics, goldsmiths' work and the old bells of the city (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). The complex is divided into the courtyard of the Reggia (the lords' palace), the Cortile d'Armi, the keep and the bridge.

The building was restored at the end of the 1950s by the director Licisco Magagnato and the architect Carlo Scarpa, whose layout treats the museum as a single work: the route, the mounts and the light are designed together with the castle's historical spaces. The museum keeps the Carlo Scarpa Archive, whose website lets visitors consult his drawings in high resolution and download a selection (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

For the centenary the Sala Mantegna has new lighting designed to respect Scarpa's plan, and a web app guides visitors through his layout. A painting by Bernardo Bellotto, View of Verona with Castelvecchio and the Scaliger Bridge from upstream of the Adige, is on display on loan from Fondazione Cariverona (Comune di Verona, 2026).

Castelvecchio's history: the Della Scala fortress

The castle was built between 1354 and 1356 and is the most important military monument of the Della Scala lordship, the family that ruled Verona for 125 years, from 1262 to 1387 (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

It was first called the castle of San Martino in Aquaro, a name possibly linked to its position near the Adigetto canal and a bridge over it or over the Adige. It took the name Castelvecchio, the old castle, only after two later fortresses were built on the hills, the castles of San Felice and San Pietro (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). The museum's website has a section on the excavations at San Martino in Aquaro (Comune di Verona, 2026).

The museum opened in 1926, and 2026 is its centenary year (Finestre sull'Arte, 2026; Comune di Verona, 2026). A themed route on how the museum was first laid out in 1926, ending with Scarpa's setting of the statue of Cangrande, runs until 10 January 2027 (Comune di Verona, 2026).

The Castelvecchio bridge (Ponte Scaligero)

The bridge was built between 1354 and 1356 by Cangrande II della Scala, at the same time as the castle, to give the lords a safe escape route towards Tyrol in case of revolt by rival factions in the city. It has three unequal brick arches with fortifications and battlements (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026d).

In 1802, under French occupation, the tower on the country side and the battlements were removed to make room for cannon. At the end of the Second World War the retreating German army blew the bridge up. It was rebuilt in brick with stone facing on the arches, to a design by the engineer Arturo Danusso with the architect Piero Gazzola, the engineer Alberto Minghetti and the architect Libero Cecchini (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026d).

The bridge reuses Roman material. A row of Corinthian capitals is built into the first pier on the castle side, visible only when the river is low, and one of them has been taken out and placed on the walkway. A Roman funerary monument found in the foundations during the 1945 rebuilding stands at the entrance to the Arsenal (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026d).

Exhibitions in the centenary year: Titian's Venus

From 31 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 Castelvecchio shows Titian's Venus and the Musical Renaissance: Music for the Eyes, from the Prado Museum to the City of Verona (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026c). At its centre is Titian's Venus with a Dog and an Organist, painted around 1550 and lent by the Prado, the first known version of his Venus with a musician (Finestre sull'Arte, 2026).

Around it the museum hangs Jacopo Tintoretto's Contest of the Muses and The Pierides from its own collection, Marietta Robusti's Self-Portrait with a Spinet from the Uffizi, and Veronese works by Girolamo dai Libri, Francesco Bonsignori, Nicolo Giolfino and Battista Zelotti, with Renaissance instruments and music books from the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona. The exhibition is co-produced by Civita Mostre e Musei (Finestre sull'Arte, 2026).

A second centenary display, Wooden Masterpieces at the Dawn of the Renaissance, runs until 25 April 2027 (Comune di Verona, 2026). Check on verona.coopculture.it whether your date's ticket includes the temporary exhibitions.

Accessibility, photography and dogs

The castle is described as fully visitable, but the museum is only partly accessible to visitors with reduced mobility. A lift, 120 by 120 centimetres inside with an 80-centimetre door, reaches only the Gallery of Paintings with the works from the 16th to the 18th century. A wheelchair can be borrowed at the ticket office, and there is a route for blind and partially sighted visitors through the rooms (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

Personal photographs are allowed, without flash, but reproducing individual works needs specific permission (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

Small dogs are admitted inside a carrier bag. Guide dogs, assistance dogs and alert dogs are always allowed. Dogs are not admitted during guided tours, events, set-ups and some temporary exhibitions, and the full rules are in the civic museums' pet policy. The museum answers on +39 045 8062611 and at [email protected] (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a). Hours and tickets for the Arena, also free with the Verona Card, are on our Arena di Verona page.

Frequently asked questions

5 questions

What are Castelvecchio Museum's opening hours?

Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:15. The museum is closed on Mondays, on 25 December and on 1 January, with an extra opening on Monday 7 December 2026 (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a).

Is Castelvecchio included in the Verona Card?

Yes, entry is free with the Verona Card, which costs 33 EUR for 24 hours or 38 EUR for 48 hours from 1 September 2026, city buses included. The card gives no priority entry at Castelvecchio; only the Arena has a priority gate. Each site can be entered once (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026b).

Is there a ticket just for the Castelvecchio walls?

No. There is a single ticket that covers both the museum rooms and the walkway on the walls. Buy it at the ticket office or online at verona.coopculture.it, the civic museums' official online box office (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026a; Comune di Verona, 2026).

Is the Castelvecchio bridge free to cross?

Yes. The Ponte di Castelvecchio, also called the Scaliger bridge, is a public crossing over the Adige. It was built between 1354 and 1356, blown up at the end of the Second World War and rebuilt in brick, reusing its stone (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026d).

Is Titian's Venus on show at Castelvecchio?

Yes, until 31 January 2027. Titian's Venus with a Dog and an Organist, lent by the Prado, is the centre of the exhibition Titian's Venus and the Musical Renaissance, which opened on 31 October 2026 for the museum's centenary (Destination Verona & Garda Foundation, 2026c; Finestre sull'Arte, 2026).

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