Description
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 centuries.
Above the high altar is the Madonna dei Lumini, a fresco detached in 1576 from a house near Corte Capitaniato. In the nave, look for the Renaissance roundels with Prophets and Sibyls, among them a Michelangelesque Moses, and an altarpiece by Padovanino.
Next to the church, the Scuola del Carmine holds frescoes by Giulio and Domenico Campagnola and by Stefano dall'Arzere, and there is a 16th-century cloister.
According to tradition, during the plague of 1575-1576 the Virgin announced the end of the epidemic in a dream: ever since, October 12 has been a feast day. The dome has had less luck: it burned in 1800 during a fireworks display and was hit by bombs in 1917 and 1944.
Above the high altar is the Madonna dei Lumini, a fresco detached in 1576 from a house near Corte Capitaniato. In the nave, look for the Renaissance roundels with Prophets and Sibyls, among them a Michelangelesque Moses, and an altarpiece by Padovanino.
Next to the church, the Scuola del Carmine holds frescoes by Giulio and Domenico Campagnola and by Stefano dall'Arzere, and there is a 16th-century cloister.
According to tradition, during the plague of 1575-1576 the Virgin announced the end of the epidemic in a dream: ever since, October 12 has been a feast day. The dome has had less luck: it burned in 1800 during a fireworks display and was hit by bombs in 1917 and 1944.