The Domus Mercatorum of Verona, from “Casa dei Mercanti” to “Casa del Vino”

The Domus Mercatorum, with its elegant portico, red terracotta bricks, the unmistakable Ghibelline battlements and its refined mullioned windows, is not only one of the most beautiful buildings in Verona in the heart of the city, in Piazza delle Erbe, but it is a real symbol of its history. The Arts and Crafts Corporations held their meetings in the imposing medieval building in municipal Verona, to trade and discuss the various aspects of economic life in the city, and they occupied the principal role in city life. Thus, it was thanks to their prominence that a family of rich merchants, the Scaligeri, came to power and created the first town Signoria in Italy. It is no coincidence, therefore, that now the idea to transform the monumental building from its original “Merchants House” to “Wine House” has come up, as it is one of the symbolic cities of Italian wine and today represents, together with tourism, the main economic activity in the territory. The proposal has been launched by Gianni Moriani, cuisine and agricultural landscape historian, supported by important Venetian and Italian culture and wine personalities, to make it a place in which to learn about the history and culture of the great Veronese wines.
The Municipality of Verona, implementing variant 29, aims to regenerate its urban fabric and its buildings, such as the ancient Domus Mercatorum, where, in the future, following the French model of the “Citè” and “Maison du Vin”, “those who enter will learn about the places where the famous Veronese red and white wines are produced”, explained Moriani, professor of Master in Philosophy of Food and Wine at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, in an interview in the Verona newspaper “L’Arena”. You can taste the wines, eat, but you will also find all the information you need to get out of the city and immerse yourself in the territory, discovering its wineries and landscapes”.
The idea has “more than one reason to be supported, promoted and implemented”, wrote in a letter to the director of the Verona newspaper, Count Pieralvise di Serego Alighieri of Possessioni Serego Alighieri, one of the oldest wineries in Italy, in the heart of Valpolicella Classica a few steps from Verona, owned by the descendants of the Supreme Poet Dante Alighieri for seven hundred years, “not only naturally, by all the workers linked in various ways to a driving sector for Verona’s economy that hopefully, in a not too far away future, will certainly be a vehicle for renewed and more appropriate lifestyles; not only by our city, which in doing so would finally promote a building historically dedicated to the excellence of its territory, in the right direction, becoming a driving force to a necessary redevelopment of a large part of the context in those incredible places; but also, and above all, by the people of Verona, so we could somehow reclaim another piece of our most beautiful square, and also be able to show it, in our justified pride to future, perhaps not as numerous foreigners, which we hope will be more attentive to beauty, who will soon return to visit it”.