Travel Guide of Padua, Veneto, Italy

Padua is a city in the Veneto region, the capital of the province of the same name. The city is picturesque, with a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal piazze, and many bridges crossing the various branches of the Bacchiglione, which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat. In Padua there are two sites declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO: the’ botanical garden, the oldest in the world and the fourteenth century frescoes, preserved in eight building complexes including the Scrovegni Chapel.

The city was one of the cultural capitals of the fourteenth century, between the fourteenth century and the fifteenth century an imposing cultural current devoted to antiquity developed in conjunction with Florence, which will turn into the Paduan Renaissance, and will influence the artistic team of the entire northern Italy of the fifteenth century. Padua is the setting for most of the action in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. There is a play by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde entitled The Duchess of Padua.

Visiting Padua brings you in contact with the highest values of the Veneto region and with some of the greatest art masterpieces of all time. Padua is a real monument of every historical era it has lived, a treasure chest that holds priceless treasures for over two thousand years of history.

From the Prato della Valle, the largest square in Europe after the Red Square, with its 78 statues, to the Basilica of Sant’Antonio and the Basilica of Santa Giustina, to the Caffè Pedrocchi, to the guided tour of the Palazzo del Bo, historic seat of the University of Padua and the anatomical theater. Find the main places of interest, monuments and buildings to visit in Padua.

Since 1222, Padua has been home to a prestigious university which ranks among the oldest in the world, which soon transformed it into one of the major centers of European culture, both in the field of literature and science. To fully enjoy one of the most peculiar aspects of the city, there are university courses and the streets and squares of the center are crowded with students.

Padua is also the religious tradition of the city, dating back to the providential intervention of the Franciscan Antonio against the widespread phenomenon of usury at the beginning of the 13th century. Made a saint just a year after his death, the Basilica of Sant’Antonio was built to receive his remains, an imposing and very important spiritual monument that contains various architectural styles (Romanesque, Gothic, Byzantine, Moorish) and which preserves many works of art. art: the church of the Saint is today a destination for pilgrimages from all over the world.

The city has the most important cycle of frescoes by Giotto, built in the early 1300s and contained within the Scrovegni Chapel, always of a sacred nature. Lovers of ancient art will be able to admire the extraordinary frescoes by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel and those by Giusto de Menabuoi, at the Baptistery of the Duomo, the most common denomination of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta.

In the vicinity of the chapel, and precisely inside the Church of the Eremitani, there are paintings by Andrea Mantenga and Giusto de ‘Menabuoi (who also frescoed the Baptistery of the Duomo). We also recommend a visit to the adjacent Civic Museum of the Eremitani, where there are finds from the Paleovenetian civilization and from the Roman era, to the Pinacoteca, where there is Giotto’s wooden crucifix, and to the Palazzo della Ragione (XIII), the city’s court built.

Padua is the places of science, Padua is dedicated since the scientific revolution of Galileo Galilei who taught here for 18 years. At Palazzo del Bo ‘, home of the University, it is possible to see the Anatomical Theater, built in 1594 and used until 1872, and the chair of Galileo Galilei. Of particular value in the building are the ancient courtyard and the Aula Magna. The Botanical Garden established in 1545 is also a recommended destination for visitors. The Planetarium of Padua, alMusme, museum of the history of medicine in Padua also worth to vist.

History
The origins of this city are very ancient. According to the legend, the city was inhabited since the 13th century BC by the Venetians. The area was already populated by a highly evolved and skilled civilization of which unequivocal traces remain.In the first century Padua was the richest city in Italy after Rome. Padua became a Roman municipality, assuming the characteristic urban layout of the cities of the Empire, which then in the Middle Ages evolved into the structure that the center still retains today, with arcaded streets that cross it completely.

According to Virgil’s Aeneid, the city was born at the hands of Antenore, a Trojan prince, in the year 1185 BC, a tradition that makes Padua one of the oldest cities in the peninsula and the oldest in Veneto. It is only a legend, but the archaeological data have confirmed the ancient origin of the city, which developed between the 13th and 11th centuries BC and linked to the civilization of the ancient Venetians. In 302 BC Patavium repelled the attack of a Spartan fleet. As early as 226 BC, the ancient Paduan people made an alliance with Rome against the Cisalpine Gauls.

From 49 BC it became a Roman municipium and in the Augustan age it became part of the X Regio, of which it was one of the most important centers. During the imperial era the city became very rich thanks to the processing of wool coming from the pastures of the Asiago plateau. Numerous roads that connected it with the main Roman centers of the time: the via Annia that connected it with Adria and Aquileia. In Roman times, Padua was the home of the historian Tito Livio and was the birthplace of the literati Gaio Valerio Flacco, Quinto Asconio Pediano and Trasea Peto.

With the fall of the Roma empire, Padua was repeatedly devastated because of the barbarian invasions, combined with the periodic floods. Towards the end of the 8th century, the stability brought by Charlemagne and the reclamation and canalization works carried out by the Benedictinesthey restarted the city economy and put an end to two centuries of crisis, giving way to re-urbanization. In the Late Middle Ages Padua distinguished itself as a free municipality, participating in the Veronese League and the Lombard League against the emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

During the municipal period the city was enriched and the foundation of the University dates back to 1222, one of the oldest in the world. In 1318, to the lordship of the Carraresi. A period of new splendor began for Padua, in which the economy and the arts flourished. Allied noble families, such as the Buzzaccarini, commissioned the cycle of frescoes in the Baptistery of the Duomo and erected the Church of the Servants.

In the same period, the wars with Verona continued, as well as those with Venice and Milan. Padua came under the rule of the Republic of Venice in 1405, and mostly remained that way until the fall of the republic in 1797. Venice fortified Padua with new walls, built between 1507 and 1544, with a series of monumental gates.

In the following four centuries Padua, although losing political importance, was able to enjoy the peace and prosperity ensured by the Venetian lordship, as well as the freedom guaranteed to its University, which attracted students and teachers from all over Europe, becoming one of the major centers of Aristotelianism and attracting numerous and illustrious intellectuals, such as Galileo Galilei.

After the fall of the Serenissima, the city was ceded by Napoleon Bonaparte to Austria. Padua became part of the Kingdom of Italy only in 1866, following the third war of independence. During the First World War, the city was the headquarters of the Italian military forces. In the Second World War Padua was an important center of the resistance against Nazi-fascism.

The post-war years were for Padua of continuous urban and economic development thanks also to its geographical location, at the center of important communication routes that favored industries and services. Between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, the city underwent important urban changes, with the construction of new modern office and residential buildings and with a profound renewal of the road system, articulated around the construction of the city ring road and the tramway of Padua.

Main attractions
Padua may be the oldest city in northern Italy, and is home to an ancient university, and parts of the town centre have a very studenty feel to them: young people revising under shady trees or meeting up before lectures. Successful modern business exists alongside unspoilt historical sights. The monumental apparatus (in the broadest sense) of the urban context, which today is offered to the visitor’s observation, amply testifies to the various phases of the historical story of Padua.

Every other chronological phase has left tangible manifestations in as many salient and characteristic places, starting from the Roman Arena, passing through the various city walls, medieval towers, palaces of noble age, churches and other places of worship (Christian and non-Christian), buildings symbolic of civil power, temples of culture (the Bo, the Botanical Garden), up to expressions of avant-garde architecture. The magnificent Prato della Valle, a 950,000-square-foot elliptical square.

Padua’s biggest tourist attraction is the Scrovegni Chapel (Cappella degli Scrovegni), with its priceless frescoes by Giotto. The town centre is an attractive place to explore, with many historic streets to wander. It’s always been a wealthy town, and has fine architecture dating to different eras. Giotto’s are not the only frescoes in town, and the art-lover has masses to admire in the town’s churches and art gallery. And after the visitor has enjoyed Padua’s lovely parks and gardens, and strolled the pleasant arcaded streets, there is still plenty to do in the area around the town: villas to visit, boat trips and thermal spas.

Religious architectures
Among the Catholic places of worship, the largest is the cathedral basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, seat of the diocese of Padua, but the pontifical basilica of Sant’Antonio is also important, an international sanctuary and one of the main destinations for religious tourism in the world. In Prato della Valle there is the basilica of Santa Giustina, an abbey, which houses famous relics. The Romanesque buildings of Santa Sofia di San Nicolò and the Baptistery, the Gothic churches of the Eremitani, of Santa Maria dei Servi, of San Francesco Grande. The churches of Scamozzi,San Gaetano and Ognissanti. The great basilica of the Carmine and the sanctuary of San Leopoldo. The Maggiore cemetery of Padua, built in the 19th century.

The Synagogue of Padua, located in the central area of the Ghetto (adjacent to the squares) with the ancient Jewish cemeteries – located in the Savonarola district – testify to the lively activity of the Jewish community in the city.

Basilica of Sant’Antonio
The Pontifical Minor Basilica of Sant’Antonio di Padova is one of the main Catholic places of worship in the city of Padua, in Veneto. Known worldwide as the Basilica of the Saint, it is one of the largest churches in the world and is visited annually by over 6.5 million pilgrims, making it one of the most revered sanctuaries in the Christian world. However, it is not the cathedral of the city, a title that belongs to the cathedral. It houses the relics of Saint Anthony of Padua and his tomb. It has the dignity of a pontifical basilica. With the Lateran Pacts, the ownership and administration of the Antonian complex were ceded to the Holy See, while remaining part of the Italian state territorially. The current pontifical delegate is Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin, prelate of Loreto and pontifical delegate of the sanctuary of the Holy House. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites on the site of the 14th century fresco cycles in Padua.

The basilica as we see it now is not the result of the original project but is the result of a series of restorations and embellishments that have become necessary over the centuries. The peculiarities of the church are the domes, arranged in the shape of a cross, probably a reference to the basilica of San Marco. The various interventions that have followed have contributed to creating a harmony of very different styles: Gothic for the buttresses, Romanesque for the facade, Byzantine for the domes as well as an Islamic influence with regard to the two twin towers that recall the architecture of the minarets. The interior also reflects this artistic variety. The Basilica is rich in works of art of considerable value and value. The Piazza del Santo, front, home to the equestrian monument to Gattamelata by Donatello. Donatello also created the bronze sculptures (Crucifix of the Basilica of the Saint, statues and tiles of various sizes) that Camillo Boito placed on the high altar he designed.

Scrovegni Chapel
The Scrovegni Chapel is a former private chapel that has become a museum site (part of the Civic Museums at the Eremitani) located in the historic center of Padua and houses a well-known cycle of Giotto ‘s frescoes from the early 14th century, considered one of the masterpieces of western art. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites on the site of the 14th century fresco cycles in Padua. The paintings hidden inside the Scrovegni chapel gave way to a pictorial revolution that developed throughout the 1300s and that influenced the history of painting.

The Chapel was built in the 1300s at the behest of Enrico Scrovegni, and is known for Giotto’s frescoes painted between 1303 and 1305. It is just over twenty meters long and eight wide. The exterior is very simple, with an elegant mullioned window in the facade and tall windows in the south wall. Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the chapel consists of a single rectangular nave that ends at the bottom of the presbytery with the sarcophagus of Enrico Scrovegni. Inside you can admire Giotto’s frescoes with the first attempts at a perspective effect and the representation of human feelings: pain, joy, amazement, sadness. Giotto, a great novelty for the time, tried to imitate as realistically as possible the expressions of people with drawing and also with color.

The frescoes, recently restored are very delicate. The way to read the paintings has a horizontal and spiral pattern. They are arranged on three levels (three rows arranged one above the other). The stories told are those of the parents of Mary, Anna and Joachim, of Mary and of Jesus Christ. The pictorial cycle begins from the first scene at the top left of the south wall (the one with the windows that you find in front as you enter the chapel) with the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple. The reading continues horizontally to the right, then passes to the opposite wall, then back to the wall with windows, but to the line below, and so on.

Basilica and Abbey of Santa Giustina
The Abbey Basilica of Santa Giustina is an important Catholic place of worship in Padua, located in Prato della Valle. The Basilica boasts the ninth place in the world for size (122 m in length). It was built by the patrician Opilione in the 5th century on the site of the martyrdom of Santa Giustina. Before the year 1000 the adjoining monastery was a place of worship from the first episcopal dependence and then entrusted to a community of Benedictine monks who made it an important abbey. In the 15th century it was the seat of the great reform of the abbot Ludovico Barbo which led to the foundation of the Cassinese Congregation. Until the Napoleonic suppressions it was one of the major abbeys of Christianity and the basilica, rebuilt in the sixteenth century, is still one of the largest basilicas in the world. The entire complex is owned by the Italian state.

The facade is unadorned, there are four marble sculptures with the symbols of the evangelists (the ox, the lion, the eagle and the angel). The domes on the top are a bright light color and appear to light up when the sun is shining. The Basilica has a Latin cross shape and has three naves. Inside, in addition to the famous works by Paolo Veronese,Sebastiano Ricci, Luca Giordano and the Corbarelli family, the eminent relics of the holy Innocents, St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Matthias the Apostle, St. Prosdocimo, St. Felicita, the Virgin and the SS. Innocenti, St. Julian, St. Urus, Blessed Arnaldo da Limena, St. Maximus and the titular saint, Justina.

Chapel of San Luca, at the end of the left aisle. Here the remains of the evangelist saint are kept, except the skull which is kept in Krakow (Poland). Here you can admire the oldest Marian image of Padua, the Icon of the Constantinopolitan Madonna. In the presbytery: an altarpiece by Veronese representing the martyrdom of Saint Justina and the Great Choir, one of the most important wooden structures in the world. Old choir with its precious inlays and friezes, inserted in a beautiful hall that was part of the old Romanesque church. The floor of the hall in the altar area is originally from the 12th century as well as the statue of Santa Giustina at the top right. Above the choir, on the right wall there is a very particular clock. It is a Benedictine clock, divided into 6 hours. The day of the Benedictine monks is in fact marked by 4 periods of 6 hours each.

Baptistery of the Cathedral
The baptistery of the Cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a building of worship located next to the Duomo, in Padua. Inside it preserves one of the most important fresco cycles of the fourteenth century, a masterpiece by Giusto de Menabuoi. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites on the site of the 14th century fresco cycles in Padua. The construction of the building began in the twelfth century on probable pre-existing structures; it underwent various alterations in the following centuries. Restored several times in the twentieth century, it now awaits an important overall restoration.

The frescoes with which it is decorated (1375-1376) are considered the masterpiece of Giusto de ‘Menabuoi. Compared to previous experiences, in Padua he must have been struck by the orderly Romanesque and Byzantine fixities, as evidenced by the great Paradise in the dome of the Baptister. On the wall adjacent to the altar is represented the Crucifixion, then the descent of the Holy Spirit (frescoed on the dome of the altar). On the altar there is a polyptych by Giusto dei Menabuoi. On the walls around the altar, in the apse, are frescoed monstrous figures and images taken from the Apocalypse of John. On the drum he painted Stories of Genesis, on the pendentives the Prophets and Evangelists, where he already showed a less Byzantine flair, such as the figures inserted in veridical illusionistically painted rooms.

Church of Santa Margherita
The church of Santa Margherita is a religious building of medieval origin that overlooks Via San Francesco, in Padua. Dedicated to Santa Margherita di Antiochia, it owes its current architectural forms to the interventions of Tommaso Temanza and perhaps Domenico Rossi. Until 1797 it was the “Abbadia” of the Gradenigo, currently it is an oratory subject to the parish of San Francesco Grande. Built on the site of an ancient oratory, the Venetian architect Tommaso Temanza designed the harmonious facade in Istrian stone in 1748, which in its sober structure already heralds neoclassical characteristics. Inside, the 16 representations of winged Putti arranged like the pages of a book are of particular interest.

The small church set on rational proportions, perhaps one of the first Venetian works fully tending towards the neoclassical ideal, which however does not renounce the elegance of its century. The reference to Palladio is clear. Built on the Ionic order, it is in Istrian stone. Four semi-columns raised on a simple straight base support the entablature and the attic, on which the four statues depicting the cardinal virtues of Francesco Bonazza are placed. The entrance portal is tapered and ended by a tympanum.

The interior is architecturally elegant and evocative, late Baroque for the setting of the pilasters and daring lacunars, but Rococo for the evident dialogue with sculptural and pictorial decoration. There are four niches occupied by the statues of the Evangelists, works by Francesco and Antonio Bonazza. On the ceiling a fresco depicts the apotheosis of Santa Margherita attributed to Giorgio Anselmi or to Francesco Zugno himself, to whom the glory of Santa Margherita placed on the high altar has been attributed. Along the walls, on the lacunars, but also on the dome of the presbytery, putti and cherubs are depicted in grisaille, holding symbols of the theological and cardinal virtues, the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, Chastity and Meekness. They are refined work of the eighteenth century.

Palace

Palazzo della Ragione
The Palazzo della Ragione was the ancient seat of city courts and the covered market of Padua. It was built starting from 1218 and raised in 1306 by Giovanni degli Eremitani who gave it the characteristic roof in the shape of an overturned ship hull. The upper floor is occupied by the largest hanging room in the world, known as the “Salone” (it measures 81 meters by 27 and has a height of 27 meters) with a wooden ceiling in the shape of a ship’s hull. It is part of the Civic Museums of Padua. The lower floor (“under the Salone”) houses the historic covered market of the city. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites on the site of the 14th century fresco cycles in Padua. The Hall divides the two large squares of the Herbs and the Fruit, seats of the Paduan markets. Under the Hall, along two parallel galleries, there are numerous and characteristic food shops. As an ideal conjunction to its primitive function it is physically connected to the east to the current municipal seat.

The original pictorial cycle, attributed to Giotto, was destroyed in the fire of 1420. The Hall is decorated with a grandiose cycle of astrological frescoes (completed between 1425 and 1440) based on the studies of Pietro d’Abano, a follower of Averroè. The frescoes, due to Niccolò Miretto and Stefano da Ferrara, take place in the “three upper bands” of the four walls over more than 200 linear meters (the starting point is the south-east corner, wall facing Piazza delle Erbe, where is the sign of Aries, corresponding to the spring equinox).

The themeastrological is divided into twelve compartments corresponding to the months, each divided into three bands of nine shelves. Each compartment includes the depictions of an apostle, the allegory of the month, the zodiac sign, the planet, typical occupations, trades, constellations: all around are represented the activities and individual characters of people defined by astral influences, to them time linked to the date of birth and ascendant. The “lower band” depicts the insignia of the judges (discs), symbolized by animals, to which are added the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues, the patron saints of Padua (such as St. Justina and Anthony of Padua) and the doctors of the Church. Since 2000 the frescoes in the Palazzo have been at the center of a restoration project, carried out thanks to the funds of the Gioco del Lotto, in accordance with the provisions of law 662/96.

In the room there is a gigantic wooden horse, a Renaissance copy of that of the monument to Gattamelata by Donatello, and two Egyptian sphinxes brought in the 19th century by Giovan Battista Belzoni. Recently a corner of the Salone was used to house a Foucault pendulum, to underline the inseparable connection between Padua and science.

Military architecture

Walls of Padua
The city from the medieval period onwards had three circles of walls that fortified the city over time. The walls of Padua are the complex of defensive works that over the centuries have been erected to defend the city from hostile attacks.

The first circle, built between 1195 and 1210, is that of the so-called “municipal” walls because it was erected during the period of the free Paduan municipality. It surrounded the most central part of the city, the so-called “insula” as it was entirely surrounded by canals (now partly disappeared). Three gates remain of this circle: two of them still passable today (Porta Molino, Porta Altinate, Porta della Cittadella Vecchia) while a third was incorporated in the fourteenth century in the Castelvecchio structures. In addition, there are numerous sections of the walls along the ancient route, often incorporated between modern buildings.

During the fourteenth century, with the expansion of the urbanized areas were built, at various times, the so-called “Carraresi” walls because they were largely built during the lordship of the Da Carrara. Very few remains of these walls remain visible in elevation, and are mostly incorporated into other Renaissance buildings and fortifications. These still medieval walls resisted, with appropriate adaptations, the siege that Padua suffered in 1509 by the troops of the Cambrai league.

Following this siege, the Serenissima decided to equip the city with a new circle of walls suitable for resisting the introduction of artillery into warfare techniques. The works began in 1513 and went on until about the middle of the 16th century. This circle still exists almost entirely albeit in different states of conservation depending on the various traits. Its perimeter is about 11 kilometers, with 20 bastions and 6 gates (out of the original 8). These walls are usually referred to as “Venetian” or “Renaissance”.

Civil architecture

Palazzo del Bo
Palazzo del Bo is the historic seat of the University of Padua since 1493. It still houses the Rectorate and the School of Law. It is also the seat of the oldest Anatomical Theater in the world. Historical site of the University of Padua. The ancient courtyard is adorned with numerous coats of arms, placed there until the end of the seventeenth century by students and those who held academic positions. One of the characteristic aspects of the Palazzo, which immediately strikes the visitor is the incredible number of coats of arms, paintings and in relief that decorate not only the atrium and arcades, but also many rooms and other rooms starting from the Aula Magna.

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At the foot of one of the two staircases leading to the upper loggia is the statue dedicated to Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman to graduate in the world, who graduated in philosophy in Padua in 1678. In the new courtyard there is instead the monument of Jannis Kounellis built in 1995 to commemorate the contribution of the University of Padua to the Resistance and the War of Liberation in Italy, for which it was awarded – the only university in Italy – the gold medal for military valor. Palazzo Bo houses the oldest stable anatomical theater in the world still preserved and the prestigious Aula Magna where Galileo Galilei also taught.

Pedrocchi Cafe
The Pedrocchi Cafe is a coffee town of international fame. Open day and night until 1916 and therefore also known as the “Café without doors”, for over a century it was a prestigious meeting point frequented by intellectuals, students, academics and politicians. On February 8, 1848, the wounding of a university student inside the premises gave way to the Italian Risorgimento riots; even today the episode is remembered in the official university hymn, Di canti di gioia. Caffè Pedrocchi is configured as a building with an approximately triangular plan. The main façade has a high base in smooth ashlar, faces east and develops along via VIII February; the three main rooms on the ground floor overlook it: the White Room, the Red Room and the Green Room, so called from the color of the tapestries created after the Unification of Italy in 1861.

The Red Room is the central one, divided into three spaces, it is the largest and currently has the fluted marble counter restored as designed by Jappelli. The Green Room, characterized by a large mirror placed above the fireplace, was traditionally intended for those who wanted to sit down and read the newspapers without having to consume. It was therefore the favorite haunt of penniless students and in Padua the saying of being broke is traced back to this custom. To the south, the café ends with a loggia supported by Doric columns and flanked by the neo – Gothic body of the so-called “Pedrocchino”. The latter consists of an octagonal-based turret that represents a source of light, thanks to the windows arranged on each side. Furthermore, inside there is a spiral staircase. Two loggias in the same style are located on the north side, and in front of these there are four stone lions sculpted by Petrelli, which imitate those in basalt that adorn the cordonata of the Campidoglio in Rome. Between the two loggias on the north side there is a terrace bordered by Corinthian columns.

School of Charity
The School of Charity is a building of medieval origin, used until the early nineteenth century for religious purposes. It overlooks Contrà dei porteghi alto, now via San Francesco in Padua, opposite the church of San Francesco Grande to which it currently belongs. The Confraternity of Charity was based there, a lay association devoted to helping the poor and infirm that flourished with the foundation of the Hospital of San Francesco Grande.

It was the seat of the brotherhood of Charity, one of the most important and oldest in Padua. The room, with a rectangular plan, dates back to the first half of the fifteenth century and presents a cycle of frescoes of 1579 on the life of the Virgin by Dario Varotari, Veronese painter and architect, father of Padovanino. The building was probably the home of the noblewoman after the construction of the church of San Francesco Grande and bequeathed to the brotherhood to be occupied as a chapter house. The brotherhood that already existed at the beginning of the fifteenth century, carried out the important task of administering the bequests destined to help the sick and the poor, to equip the girls and to other good works.

The current internal conformation was the result of the interventions of the 16th century. In ancient times the building had to be decorated externally with fresco decorations, which today do not remain. The medieval building, with a portico on the facade and uncovered in its irregular course towards Via Santa Sofia. The interior walls of the chapter room were frescoed by Dario Varotari, Padovanino’s father and Chiara Varotari, also a painter, in 1579 with Stories from the life of the Virgin, the last great cycle of frescoes painted in Padua towards the end of the 16th century. The scenes are grouped in twelve panels; there is a thirteenth panel depicting Baldo de ‘Bonafarii and Sibilla de Cetto with the Hospital, the Church and the Convent of San Francesco in the background.

Loggia and Odeo Cornaro
The Loggia and Odeo Cornaro is an architectural complex built by Alvise Corner in Padua in the first half of the 16th century. The Loggia was born as a consequence of the humanistic interest in the ancient theater. The works of Angelo Beolco known as il Ruzante were represented, who was superintendent and trusted man of Alvise Corner. This “forum cornaro” which faithfully reproduces the classical orders was designed by the architect and painter Giovanni Maria Falconetto in 1524 and was specially designed to hold theatrical performances. It is in fact a sort of fifth -free depth and was used as a performance space (stage and theatrical background).

The apparatus of classical forms, even if correct, does not give life to three-dimensionally articulated facades; in fact niches and pilasters are not very detached from the wall surface and in the loggia the relationship between the Doric columns on the ground floor and the Ionic pilasters on the upper floor is not resolved. The octagonal room located in the center of the Odeo is made up of rectilinear walls alternating with niches: very similar rooms in the part of Nero ‘s Domus Aurea which had only been discovered. Some scholars, such as Ludovico Zorzi in his The theater and the city (1977), have suggested that the room should be used to host concerts of music.

Loggia of the Carraresi
The Loggia dei Carraresi is a historic building in Padua located in via Accademia. It constitutes the last surviving part of the entire Carrarese Palace, the great residence of the Da Carrara, lords of Padua. It constitutes the last surviving part of the entire Carrarese Palace, the great residence of the Da Carrara, lords of Padua. The palace complex, built between 1339 and 1343, included a west palace (older) and a east palace, connected to each other by a central building and a large internal courtyard that roughly corresponded to today’s Piazza Capitaniato.. The so-called ferry to the walls departed from the Palazzo di Ponente, an elevated passage, which can also be traveled on horseback, which connected the Royal Palace to the city walls, the Castle and Torlonga. This allowed the Lord an easier movement, and also a greater possibility of escape in case of danger. Since 2021 it has been included by UNESCO among the World Heritage Sites on the site of the 14th century fresco cycles in Padua.

Over the centuries, the complex of buildings of the Royal Palace has undergone inevitable degradation with demolitions and modifications, and the front of the loggia is the only structure that has remained almost intact. In the rooms behind, there is the Sala delle Adunanze where there is what remains of the private chapel. The Loggia is what remains of the Palazzo di Ponente and is still the seat of the Galilean Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts. In its rooms there is the famous map of Padua made in ink and watercolored in sepia by the cartographer and academic Giovanni Valle in 1784, who was the first to use trigonometric calculations for his plans and the first plan of Padua made with scale measurements. Inside are the Antechamber of the Cimieri where the medallions containing the Carraresi cimieri alternating with the symbol of the wagon triumph and the Chamber of the Wagons where a fake arabesque fabric decoration with crests and wagons has remained.

Clock Tower
The Clock Tower is a building of medieval origin that overlooks Piazza dei Signori in Padua. It stands between the Palazzo del Capitanio and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi. The tower was built in the first half of the fourteenth century as the eastern gate of the Carrarese Palace. In 1428 it was raised and adorned in the Gothic style and equipped with the famous astronomical clock. In 1531 the great triumphal arch was added to the base, based on a project by Giovanni Maria Falconetto. The clock tower is one of the symbols of the Carrarese era. With its mechanism it offered a point of reference for everyday life in the city. The clock is a faithful copy in the mechanism and operation of that of Jacopo Dondi and still maintains its original shape and functioning today.

The astronomical clock that dominates the square is the oldest preserved machine of its kind in the world and with a diameter of 5.6 m it is also one of the largest; it is the reconstruction of the original mechanism placed on the tower of the southern gate of the Carrarese Palace, built on the extraordinary project by Jacopo Dondi in 1344 and damaged by a fire that broke out due to the skirmishes made by Prince Francesco Novello against the Visconti occupation. The original signs of the Zodiac are preserved from this ancient 14th century instrument, reused by Matteo Novelloand Giovanni and Gian Pietro delle Caldiere for the construction of the current one, which was completed in 1436. The frame, characterized by Ionic pilasters, is due to Giovanni Maria Falconetto who restored the façade of the tower commissioned by Vitale Lando in 1537. The precious mechanism – which suffered from restorations and extensions over the centuries – is housed on the third floor of the tower, supported by a wooden castle and protected by an imposing wardrobe.

Museums

Civic Museums of Padua
The Civic Museums of Padua, also known as the Civic Museums of the Eremitani, are a museum complex located in Piazza Eremitani in the city of Padua. The civic museums group the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art. Since 1985 it has been housed in the cloisters of the former convent of the eremitani friars, restored according to the project of the architects Franco Albini and Franca Helg. For some years now the facing Zuckermann Palace has also been part of the civic museums, which houses the Museum of Applied Arts and the Bottacin Museum. Recently, in the noble floor of the Caffè Pedrocchi, the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the contemporary age was set up.

Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum houses pre-Roman finds from the Patavian necropolis, dating from the VIII to the III century BC, decorated vases dating back to the third Atestine period (VI – V century BC), paleovenete stelae, votive objects, Etruscan, Italic and paleovenetic bronzes. The Roman section houses, among other things, the bust of Silenus, the funerary stone of the dancer Claudia Toreuma, the monumental funerary shrine of the Volumnii and numerous late Roman mosaics. Two rooms are reserved for Egyptian artifacts recovered by the Paduan explorerGiovanni Battista Belzoni.

Museum of Medieval and Modern Art
The Museum of Medieval and Modern Art houses a picture gallery with about 3000 paintings dated from the ‘300 to the ‘ 800, as well as a large collection of sculptures and decorative and architectural fragments. The occasion for the establishment of a real Civic Art Gallery was the concession to the Municipality by the Emperor Francesco Giuseppe, on a visit to Padua in 1857, of the paintings from the suppressed religious corporations. Private purchases and bequests enriched the collections. The Lapidary (minor cloister) collects architectural-decorative fragments from Padua and the territory, which give information on the city from the Middle Ages to the fall of the Venetian Republic.

There are works by Giorgione, Tiziano Vecellio (Birth of Adone, Selva di Polidoro), Giotto, Guariento, Francesco Squarcione (Polyptych De Lazara), Romanino, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Antonio Canova, Giambattista Tiepolo, Jacopo Bellini, Bernardo Strozzi, Andrea Briosco, Valentin Lefevre, Luca Giordano, Giambattista Piazzetta,Pietro Longhi, Marco Ricci, François de Dijon, Bernardino Luini, Chiara Varotari, Andrea Previtali refined Baroque painter.

Museum of Applied Arts and Bottacin Museum
At Palazzo Zuckermann there is the new Museum of Applied Arts which exhibits over two thousand pieces of furniture, sacred vestments, devotional and liturgical objects, glass, carvings, ceramics, silver, ivories, textiles. The more than 400 jewels on display come from the legacy of Leone Trieste (1883).

On the second floor there is the Bottacin Museum, which houses a collection, mainly numismatic, donated by the Trieste merchant Nicola Bottacin to the city of Padua in 1865. The rooms ideally recall the rooms of the Bottacin villa in Trieste. There are paintings, furniture, ancient weapons, sculptures. An entire section is dedicated to the more than 20,000 pieces of the collection of coins and medals, arranged in chronological succession, starting with pre-Roman specimens, passing through issues of the republican and imperial era, medieval coins and coins from the Venetian era, of which the Bottacin collection is one of the most complete in the world.

Museum of the Risorgimento and the Contemporary Age
The Museum of the Risorgimento and of the contemporary age has been set up next to the noble floor of the historic Caffè Pedrocchi. There are preserved documents that testify a century and a half of Paduan and national history, from the fall of the Republic of Venice (1797) to the promulgation of the Italian Constitution (1948). In a room of the museum you can view films, taken from vintage newsreels, on Mussolini’s visit to Padua in 1938 and on other historical events in the city, an original red jacket and a copy of Garibaldi ‘s famous ” obey “.

Zuckermann Palace
Palazzo Zuckermann is an imposing Paduan building, located in Corso Garibaldi 33, in contiguity with the Central Post Office building. For more than twenty years a part of its premises has been used as a public telephone place. It is currently part of the complex of the Civic Museums of Padua and houses the Museum of Applied Arts on the ground floor and first floor. The second floor houses the new layout of the Bottacin Museum. The building looks like a 19th century type block, but the façade has an abundance of neoclassical elements, expressly desired by the client for a monumental function, and a series of references to the Art Nouveau style in vogue at the time. From the main entrance on the ground floor you can access the courtyard in which there are remains of the old city walls. Through a Carrara marble staircase, illuminated by a large skylight and a three-arched glass window, you enter the main floor which houses the Museum of Applied Arts. A smaller staircase leads to the second floor and the Bottacin Museum.

Museum of Applied Arts
The museum houses more than two thousand works of artistic craftsmanship, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age. In particular interest are the collections of ceramics, dating back to the sixteenth century, and the furnishings, with inlaid furniture from the eighteenth century. Objects of daily use are also exhibited, such as men’s and women’s clothing from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with various accessories and jewels.

The Bottacin Museum
The museum houses the collections donated in 1865 by the numismatist Nicola Bottacin. Greek coins, Roman and Byzantine coins and medallions are exhibited; the historical path continues with the coins of the medieval era, up to the Renaissance, Italy and today. Particular attention is paid to the section concerning the issue of coins in the Veneto area, and the medals with works by Giovanni Cavino. Among the works of art, paintings and sculptures are exhibited, including the Bust of Doge Paolo Renier, by Canova; There are also ancient weapons and relics of the Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, a friend of Bottacin.

Observatory of Padua (La Specola Museum)
The Observatory of Padua is the seat of the ancient astronomical observatory of the University of Padua: it is located on Torlonga, the larger of the two towers of the ancient Castle of Padua. In 1242 the high tower was used by the tyrant Ezzelino III da Romano to keep prisoners locked up. In 1761 the Senate of the Republic of Venice issued the decree which provided for the establishment of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Padua, so in 1777 the tower became an “astronomical specula”. In 1994, the Padua Observatory was approved the establishment of the museum section of the Observatory, with the name of “La Specola Museum”. The acquisition of the new spaces, which took place a few years later, then allowed the Observatory to expand the museum itinerary and to use the entire tower as a museum. Since 1994, therefore, the La Specola Museum has preserved, restored and exhibited the observation instruments used by Paduan astronomers during the 250 years of their history.

Museum of the History of Medicine of Padua
The Museum of the History of Medicine of Padua (MUSME) is a museum open to the public since 2015 and located inside the ancient Hospital of San Francesco, next to the church of San Francesco Grande in Padua. The museum, through its interactive tools and its collections, illustrates to the public of all ages and education the evolution of medical science over the centuries, with particular reference to the history of medicine in the University of Padua, one of the leading medical schools in the West.

The museum, which consists of three floors, is highly interactive and combines the characteristics of a science center together with those of a traditional museum. In the rooms of the museum, the collection of ancient artifacts – made available by the University of Padua, Civic Museums, Hospital and ULSS16 – are flanked by interactive exhibitions, videos and multimedia games, designed to illustrate the finds and clarify the topics covered, with special paths for children. In each room, visitors can knock on large virtual doors, in which, thanks to life-size videos, the protagonists of the past presenting themselves and the themes of the museum are evoked.

In addition to exhibiting medical instruments and anatomical finds from various eras, the exhibition allows you to browse through some virtual books on which pages of ancient medical texts are projected. After the six rooms opens the great Vesalian anatomical theater, a double-height hall with an 8-meter talking model of the human body in the center, which visitors can interrogate while exploring its anatomy and physiology through realistic projections.

Public space

Piazza dei Signori
Piazza dei Signori or Piazza della Signoria is one of the numerous squares that characterize the historic center of the city of Padua. For centuries it was the scene of civic celebrations, tournaments and a representative space of the city compared to the largest squares of the Herbs and Fruit, which had greater commercial propensities. The square is dominated by the famous Clock Tower. On the pavement you can see the manhole of the well leveled in 1785. Under the arcades is the oldest pizzeria in Padua, which in 1953 replaced a chocolate shop, inaugurating the season of pizzerias in the city.

The piazza has a rectangular shape. The houses that surround it – of various eras and styles – rise for the most part on arcades of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Some still bear medieval and Renaissance decorations. To the west dominates the Clock Tower flanked by the symmetrical palaces of the Capitanio and the Camerlenghi works of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Mannerist style. On the pavement the Marciana Column rises to the left: dating back to the mid-eighteenth century, it is a monument made up of more ancient pieces, including the marble column and capital of the Roman age. To the east is the ancient church of San Clemente flanked by medieval houses.

To the south, towards the Cathedral, the Lombard Loggia del Consiglio stands out, flanked by the narrow “executioner’s house” largely rebuilt with the nearby Palazzo Foscari after being hit by a bomb in the Second World War. Not far away, a curious nineteenth-century inscription invites you to keep the square clean. To the north there are interesting medieval houses, among which the gothic Molin building where Lina Merlin lived. In one of the columns that support the portico towards Piazza della Frutta is engraved a popular “memory” of the uncovering of the Palazzo della Ragione which occurred due to a whirlwind in 1756.

Prato della Valle
The Prato della Valle is the largest square of the city of Padua. The current configuration dates back to the end of the 18th century and is characterized by a central elliptical island, called Memmia island. The square is characterized by the central island Isola Memmia surrounded by a canal decorated with 78 statues of well-known historical figures. It is a symbol of Padua and the Paduans simply call it “Prato”. It hosts a large market every Saturday and fruit and vegetable stalls every morning. There you can also admire spectacular fireworks on December 31 and August 15. It is home to various initiatives and events, such as the Marathon of Sant’Antonio di Padova which takes place every year in April.

The square was designed by Andrea Memmo, Provveditore di Venezia in Padua from 1775 to 1776. Andrea Memmo in 1775 transformed it into a place of peace and beauty that all citizens could enjoy thanks to the creation of a central island surrounded by an elliptical artificial canal surrounded by a double ring of statues. The island was built through the transport of 10,000 wagons of land that served to fill the central depression of the meadow and to prevent the stagnation of water and the swamp that periodically hit the area. Transformed into a garden that reflected the Enlightenment ideals of its creator, the island immediately took the name of Memmia.e construction of the square as we see it now.

The Prato della Valle area has been the subject of a complex recovery intervention since the early nineties. This recovery involved both the physical aspect of the area and the social-functional one. Progressive restrictions on the circulation of cars have almost totally eliminated the parking areas used off the Memmia island. A new arrangement of the island’s vegetation has allowed the area to be used by a large number of young people, especially in the summer months as a meeting place for studying outdoors or sunbathing. The increase in public lighting has also allowed its use in the evening, especially in summer, when the island is crowded with young people, among whom real groups are often formed that entertain people with music or small improvised performances. For some years, the outside of the island, being asphalted, has often been used by skaters;professional skating.

The Prato obviously also maintains its historical functions as a place of commerce and entertainment. Every Saturday there is the traditional market of Padua with over 160 banks and third Sunday of each month of the ‘market antiques. Since autumn 2007 some stalls of the daily fruit and vegetable market in the squares around the Palazzo della Ragione have been moved to Prato.

Several times a year the Prato hosts concerts (the Festivalbar has made a stop there several times) with tens of thousands of spectators. Even the historical group of Pooh, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary, made a stop in 2006 with well over 150,000 spectators. Every New Year and August 15th, parties with music and fireworks are organized in Prato; the Ferragostan ones are particularly appreciated, with spectators from all over the Veneto region. On the occasion of major sporting events, such as the World Cup, large screens are set up to follow the events. The square is also the traditional venue for the celebrations in the event of football victories for Italian teams.

Natural areas
The green areas of Padua constitute an important monumental, social, touristic and cultural aspect of the City of the Saint. Since portions of the walls of Padua have often been recovered as a green area (in particular the sixteenth century ones), these surfaces are in fact intimately interwoven with the history and urban planning of Padua itself. Among the green spaces, the Botanical Garden of Padua stands out, a UNESCO heritage site and the Treves de Bonfili Park designed by Giuseppe Jappelli.

Botanical garden of Padua
The botanical garden of Padua, founded in 1545, is the oldest botanical garden in the world still in its original location. Located in an area of about 2.2 hectares, it is located in the historic center of Padua, near the Prato della Valle. Since 1997 Heritage of ‘ UNESCO. The current structure of the garden substantially maintains that of the initial project, the work of Daniele Barbaro, although soon partially modified by Michiel: a square inscribed in a circle refers to the ideal of a Hortus Conclusus, a heavenly place destined to welcome those who sought the relationship between man and the universe.

The garden currently has an area of almost 22,000 square meters and contains over 6,000 cultivated plants, gathering 3,500 different species; which represent, albeit in a reduced form, a significant part of the vegetable kingdom. The structure is surrounded by a circular wall built in 1552 to stem the theft of medicinal herbs. Inside, four stands are in turn divided into flower beds. In the center, a swimming pool for aquatic plants is fed by a stream of hot water coming from an aquifer located almost three hundred meters below the level of the garden. There are numerous plants introduced for the first time in Italy through the botanical garden. These include Ginkgo biloba, magnolia, potato, jasmine, acacia and sunflower.

University
The University of Padua, founded in 1222, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second in Italy. Throughout its history, the University of Padua was a meeting place for some of the most important European and Italian personalitie. The University also founded the Botanical Garden of Padua, the oldest still existing botanical garden in the world (1545), the University Library of Padua (1629) and the Observatory of Padua (1777). The University also manages nine scientific museums, including the Museum of the History of Physics, and is one of the founding members of the inter – university consortium CINECA.

Cuisine
Padua has a very long food and wine tradition that finds expression in the use of fresh local products in many typical and traditional preparations. Paduan cuisine harks back to the Venetian tradition and many dishes can be tasted in other areas of the region. Some, however, are part of the city and its customs. Typical of the various seasons in which the ingredients that characterize them are found are risottos. It is said that, at the end of the 19th century, the chef of the Caffè Pedrocchi managed, by bet, to produce a different variant of risotto for every day of the year.

A trip to Padua is also a journey of discovery of this history, which is renewed every day, and to which new chapters are continually added. The imagination and experience of artisans and restaurateurs allow you to taste many variations, as well as to find other products with a very long history in the menus, in the shops, on the market stalls, consumed for generations in peasant houses as in the city.

Events
Padua has always been the destination of many visitors who come to the city of the Saint for the numerous events that take place throughout the year. Among the most relevant are:

Trade fair
Trade fair in May. it is the largest intersectoral exhibition in the North East, reached by more than two hundred and fifty thousand visitors. There are a thousand exhibitors grouped into five sectors: furniture, food and wine, tourism, leisure, crafts.

Re-enactment of the Transit of Saint Anthony
The re-enactment on the evening of 12 June. The historical re-enactment in costume wants to celebrate the last journey of Saint Anthony: in fact he was living in Camposampiero when he perceived that his earthly life was drawing to a close, he therefore asked to be transported to his beloved Padua to breathe his last. Lying on a cart pulled by oxen, however, he was unable to reach the gates of the city and was hospitalized at the then Franciscan convent of Santa Maria de ‘Cella (legend has it that it was founded by St. Francis himself), where he died (the place where the saint died is today inside the Sanctuary of Sant’Antonio d’Arcella). The historical re-enactment of the transit starts from Piazza Azzurri d’Italia, continues along via Tiziano Aspetti, viale Arcella and ends at the sanctuary of Sant’Antonio d’Arcella;

Feast of Sant’Antonio
On 13 June, after a solemn mass celebrated in the morning by the bishop in the basilica, in the afternoon follows a second solemn mass, celebrated by the provincial father of the Friars Minor Conventual, after which the relic of the Saint’s chin, preceded by the statue, is carried in procession through the streets of the city center, followed by a parade of the brotherhoods with their respective banners, and by the authorities. The procession winds along the main streets of the historic center according to the following path: piazza del Santo, via del Santo, via San Francesco, via Roma, via Umberto I, Prato della Valle, via Beato Luca Belludi, Piazza del Santo. The event ends with the Mayor’s speech and the Blessing with the relic of the Saint’s Finger.

Sherwood Festival
Sherwood Festival in June-July; Radio Sherwood, an independent Paduan radio, gives life to the Sherwood Festival, an important city event lasting one month. Important musical groups from the Italian and international alternative scene alternate on stage.

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