The Basilica of Saint Anthony, simply «il Santo» to the people of Padua, holds the tomb of Saint Anthony of Padua and is one of the most visited shrines in the Christian world: more than 6.5 million pilgrims a year. Its eight domes and two...
The Scrovegni Chapel is a small church in Padua, on the site of the ancient Roman arena, entirely covered with Giotto's frescoes from the early fourteenth century. It is one of the masterpieces of Western painting and, since 2021, part of the...
Palazzo del Bo, «il Bo» to everyone, has been the historic seat of the University of Padua since 1493, in the centre of the city. Inside you walk through five centuries of learning: Galileo's lectern, the oldest anatomical theatre in the world...
The Prato della Valle is the largest square in Padua, with almost ninety thousand square meters, a stone's throw from the Basilica of Santa Giustina. At the center is a green elliptical island surrounded by a canal, and on both banks a double...
The Musei Civici agli Eremitani are Padua's great museum, housed in the cloisters of the old convent of the Eremitani friars, on Piazza Eremitani. Under one roof are an archaeological museum and a picture gallery with about three thousand...
Padua's Anatomical Theatre is the oldest permanent anatomical theatre in the world: a wooden funnel built in 1594 inside Palazzo del Bo, where for almost three centuries medical students watched dissections of corpses from above. It has come down...
Piazza delle Erbe is the market square in the heart of Padua, below the flank of Palazzo della Ragione: in the morning it is full of fruit and vegetable stalls, in the evening of tables for an aperitivo. Together with neighbouring Piazza della...
The Church of the Eremitani, dedicated to Saints Philip and James, is the large medieval church on Piazza Eremitani in Padua, next to the old convent that now houses the Musei Civici. It holds Andrea Mantegna's first frescoes and the cycles of...
Palazzo della Ragione, «il Salone» to the people of Padua, is the city's old palace of the law courts, between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta. Upstairs is an immense hall under a roof shaped like an upturned ship, for a long time the...
The Oratory of St George is a small brick chapel on Piazza del Santo in Padua, next to the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Outside it is plain; inside, every wall is covered by the frescoes of Altichiero da Zevio, one of the great cycles of...
Piazza della Frutta (or «delle Frutta», as the historic sign says) is the market square on the north side of Palazzo della Ragione, in the centre of Padua. Every morning it fills with fruit and vegetable stalls, as it has since the end of the...
The Botanical Garden of Padua, founded in 1545, is the oldest botanical garden in the world still in its original location, in the historic centre, a short walk from Prato della Valle. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, it combines a...
Piazza dei Signori is the stately square of central Padua, a short walk from the Duomo and the market squares: a large paved rectangle, framed by medieval porticoes and dominated by the Clock Tower. For centuries it was the city's drawing room,...
The Equestrian Monument to Gattamelata is Donatello's bronze statue that dominates Piazza del Santo in Padua, in front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Cast between 1446 and 1453, it is the first large bronze equestrian statue since antiquity:...
The Cathedral of Padua, the basilica-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, is the city's main church and the seat of the bishop since at least the fourth century. It stands in Piazza Duomo, next to the bishop's palace and the Baptistery, and its...
The Baptistery of the Duomo of Padua is a 12th-century building beside the cathedral that holds one of the great fresco cycles of the 14th century: the masterpiece of Giusto de' Menabuoi, which covers every wall and the dome. It has been a UNESCO...
The Scoletta del Santo, or Scuola del Santo, is the historic seat of the confraternity of Saint Anthony, on the square in front of the basilica in Padua, next to the Oratory of St George. Upstairs it keeps an unexpected treasure: the first great...
Palazzo Zuckermann is a large early 20th-century palace on Corso Garibaldi in Padua, opposite the Musei Civici agli Eremitani. Today it is part of the Musei Civici and houses two museums: the applied arts and the coin collections of the Bottacin...
The Teatro Verdi is Padua's main theatre, in the historic centre: an 18th-century theatre, born as the «Teatro Nuovo e della Nobiltà» and today the operational home of the Teatro Stabile del Veneto.
Outside, the curved front was designed...
The Church of Santa Sofia, on Contrà Altinate in Padua, is one of the finest examples of Venetian Romanesque: a hall of stone and brick, austere and harmonious, that seems to have come straight out of the Middle Ages.
The façade faces west...
The Museo del Precinema tells how the world went "to the movies" before movies existed. It is in Palazzo Angeli, overlooking Prato della Valle in Padua, and holds the Minici Zotti Collection: magic lanterns, optical views, visual games and tricks...
Praglia Abbey is a Benedictine monastery that is still very much alive, at the foot of the Euganean Hills, in the Paduan countryside between Teolo and Abano Terme. Behind its walls are a Renaissance basilica, four very different cloisters and a...
The Loggia del Consiglio, also known as the Gran Guardia, is the elegant white Renaissance building on the corner of Piazza dei Signori in Padua. This is where the city's government used to meet: a grand staircase climbs straight up from the...
The Palazzo del Monte di Pietà closes one side of Piazza del Duomo in Padua: a medieval portico of six arches carrying a Renaissance façade by Giovanni Maria Falconetto. For centuries the people of Padua pawned their belongings here for a loan;...
The Church of San Nicolò hides in one of the most medieval corners of Padua, on the small paved square named after it, squeezed between thirteenth- and fourteenth-century houses and palaces. It is among the oldest churches in the city and,...
Padua's Diocesan Museum occupies the halls of the Bishop's Palace, next to the Cathedral: a journey through a thousand years of Paduan sacred art, from a ninth-century silver inkwell to the Tiepolos, inside frescoed halls that are worth the visit...
The Church of San Clemente is the small medieval church set among the houses of Piazza dei Signori in Padua, right opposite the Clock Tower. From outside you only see the façade, but inside it tells centuries of the life of the square and its...
The Church of San Francesco Grande is the heart of a large Gothic complex in the centre of Padua, between the old friary and the city's first true hospital. Outside there is a very long portico, inside a bright nave full of works, from Paolo...
La Specola is the tall battlemented tower on the Bacchiglione in Padua that went from being a medieval tyrant's prison to an astronomical observatory. Today it houses the Museo La Specola, with the instruments used by Paduan astronomers over 250...
The Loggia Amulea is the Neo-Gothic palace overlooking Prato della Valle, the largest square in Padua. With the loggia on its façade, it was conceived as a grandstand of honour over the square, for the authorities and for a paying...
The Basilica del Carmine, which the people of Padua call "i Carmini", is the large single-nave church on Piazza Petrarca in Padua, a short walk from Ponte Molino. It is worth a stop for its dome and for an image the city has been devoted to for...
The Basilica of Santa Giustina is one of Padua's great churches, on the Prato della Valle, with a crossing covered by eight domes. At 118.5 meters long, it was the largest church of the Venetian state. For Paduans it is also the Benedictine...
The Palazzo del Capitanio closes the east side of Piazza dei Signori, in the center of Padua: it was the seat of the Capitanio, one of the governors Venice sent to rule the city, and it stands on the remains of the Carraresi family's...
The Oratory of San Rocco is a small 16th-century building next to the church of Santa Lucia, in the center of Padua, near Via San Rocco. It was the seat of the saint's confraternity; today it belongs to the city and hosts temporary...
Palazzo Moroni is Padua's city hall: a group of buildings from different periods between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, right across from Palazzo Bo. The name comes from the architect Andrea Moroni, who from 1539 rebuilt the old...
The Museo Storico della Terza Armata keeps alive in Padua, inside Palazzo Camerini, the memory of the Great War fought on the Karst and the lower Piave. The palace was the headquarters of the Third Army until 1973; the museum was founded in...
The Roman Arena of Padua is what remains of the amphitheater built around 70 AD, where gladiator fights and wild beast shows were held. The ruins lie in the Giardini dell'Arena, on Corso Garibaldi, next to the Scrovegni Chapel.
Of the...
The Ponte San Lorenzo is a Roman bridge from the 1st century BC hidden beneath Via San Francesco, in the center of Padua, between Palazzo Bo and the Prefecture. The waterway it crossed has been filled in, but its arches are still intact below...
Petrarch's House in Arquà is the house in the Euganean Hills, in Arquà Petrarca, where the poet lived from 1369 until his death in 1374. He himself described it as a "small house, decorous and noble"; since 1875 it has been a museum of the city...