Description
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 Guariento and Giusto de' Menabuoi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Outside, the gabled façade has a rose window and, below, a blind loggia of five stone arches. The side portal on the south flank is decorated with twelve high reliefs of the months of the year, carved in 1422 by the Florentine Niccolò Baroncelli.
Inside is a single long nave covered by a wooden ceiling shaped like a ship's hull. On either side of the entrance are the tombs of two lords of Padua, Ubertino and Jacopo II da Carrara, carved in the mid-14th century by Andriolo de Santi. On the left wall, the great mausoleum of Marco Mantova Benavides is by Bartolomeo Ammannati.
The best-known treasure is the Ovetari Chapel, to the right of the altar, frescoed between 1448 and 1457 by a Mantegna who was just seventeen when the work began.
The bombing of 1944 destroyed almost all of it: only two scenes survived whole, detached around 1880 and put away for safekeeping, the Assumption and the Martyrdom of St Christopher. The rest is a mosaic of reassembled fragments.
In the main chapel remain the frescoes by Guariento, from the 1360s: stories of St Philip and St Augustine and, below, in monochrome, the Planets and the Ages of Man. In the Cortellieri Chapel are the remains of a cycle by Giusto de' Menabuoi with the Liberal Arts.
On 11 March 1944 an Anglo-American bombing raid hit the church, close to the station and next to a convent used as barracks. The façade, ceiling and apse were partly destroyed. After the war the church was rebuilt as it had been, with the materials recovered from the rubble put back in their places.
Mantegna's cycle even ended up in court. In 1457 the patron, Imperatrice Ovetari, sued him because in the Assumption he had painted only eight apostles instead of twelve; the experts sided with him: there was not enough room.
Illustrious figures have passed through the church. Henry III of Valois stopped here in 1574, on his way to France to be crowned; St Francis de Sales prayed here as a student; Martin Luther stayed in the convent on his way to Rome.
Don't miss
• Ovetari Chapel.
• Guariento's frescoes.
• Carrara tombs.
• Portal of the months.
Did you know?
The singer and composer Barbara Strozzi rests in the church.
Fra' Giovanni degli Eremitani made the first hull-shaped ceiling, around 1306, with timber left over from the vault of Palazzo della Ragione.
Outside, the gabled façade has a rose window and, below, a blind loggia of five stone arches. The side portal on the south flank is decorated with twelve high reliefs of the months of the year, carved in 1422 by the Florentine Niccolò Baroncelli.
Inside is a single long nave covered by a wooden ceiling shaped like a ship's hull. On either side of the entrance are the tombs of two lords of Padua, Ubertino and Jacopo II da Carrara, carved in the mid-14th century by Andriolo de Santi. On the left wall, the great mausoleum of Marco Mantova Benavides is by Bartolomeo Ammannati.
The best-known treasure is the Ovetari Chapel, to the right of the altar, frescoed between 1448 and 1457 by a Mantegna who was just seventeen when the work began.
The bombing of 1944 destroyed almost all of it: only two scenes survived whole, detached around 1880 and put away for safekeeping, the Assumption and the Martyrdom of St Christopher. The rest is a mosaic of reassembled fragments.
In the main chapel remain the frescoes by Guariento, from the 1360s: stories of St Philip and St Augustine and, below, in monochrome, the Planets and the Ages of Man. In the Cortellieri Chapel are the remains of a cycle by Giusto de' Menabuoi with the Liberal Arts.
On 11 March 1944 an Anglo-American bombing raid hit the church, close to the station and next to a convent used as barracks. The façade, ceiling and apse were partly destroyed. After the war the church was rebuilt as it had been, with the materials recovered from the rubble put back in their places.
Mantegna's cycle even ended up in court. In 1457 the patron, Imperatrice Ovetari, sued him because in the Assumption he had painted only eight apostles instead of twelve; the experts sided with him: there was not enough room.
Illustrious figures have passed through the church. Henry III of Valois stopped here in 1574, on his way to France to be crowned; St Francis de Sales prayed here as a student; Martin Luther stayed in the convent on his way to Rome.
Don't miss
• Ovetari Chapel.
• Guariento's frescoes.
• Carrara tombs.
• Portal of the months.
Did you know?
The singer and composer Barbara Strozzi rests in the church.
Fra' Giovanni degli Eremitani made the first hull-shaped ceiling, around 1306, with timber left over from the vault of Palazzo della Ragione.