 Built in Gothic style, they are a series of tombs, mostly freestanding open tabernacle-like structures rising high above the ground, with a sarcophagus surmounted by an elaborate baldachin, topped by a statue of the deceased, mounted and wearing armour.According to the French historian Georges Duby, they are one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic art.The tombs are placed within an enclosure of wrought iron grilles decorated with a stair motif, referring to the name of the della Scala family, meaning "of the stairs" in Italian.