Description
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 years of history.
The tower, the Torlonga of the Castelvecchio, is almost 50 metres high and has 252 steps. The eighteenth century turned it into an observatory on two floors, each with its own task.
At about 16 metres is the Meridian Room: here the meridian line was traced, marking the exact moment of local noon, and a large mural quadrant, precisely aligned along the north-south axis, measured the passage of the stars. It came from England in 1779, by ship as far as Venice and then by boat.
At the top is the octagonal Room of the Figures, with tall windows to look at the sky in every direction. The walls were frescoed by Giacomo Ciesa with astronomical subjects devised by the astronomer who wanted the observatory. The instruments, on wheels, were rolled out onto the terrace, wider towards the south, the favoured direction for observing the sky from our hemisphere.
The tower's history is anything but peaceful. Built for defence, it was reworked in the thirteenth century by Ezzelino III da Romano and became notorious as a prison and place of torture for his enemies. In the fourteenth century the Carraresi built a new castle around it.
In 1761 the Venetian Senate decided to give the University of Padua an observatory. Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo and the architect Domenico Cerato chose the old tower, solid and with a clear view to the south, and the work was finished in 1777. A plaque above the door recalls how the prison tower became a place for studying the sky.
In 1773 Toaldo had the first lightning rod on a public building in the Republic of Venice fitted on the tower. In 1786 Goethe climbed up here too, and described the view from the top in his travel diary.
During the First World War the tower was requisitioned to spot enemy aircraft. With the birth of the Asiago observatory in 1942, the Specola stopped observing the sky and became an archive, a library and, since 1994, a museum.
The tower, the Torlonga of the Castelvecchio, is almost 50 metres high and has 252 steps. The eighteenth century turned it into an observatory on two floors, each with its own task.
At about 16 metres is the Meridian Room: here the meridian line was traced, marking the exact moment of local noon, and a large mural quadrant, precisely aligned along the north-south axis, measured the passage of the stars. It came from England in 1779, by ship as far as Venice and then by boat.
At the top is the octagonal Room of the Figures, with tall windows to look at the sky in every direction. The walls were frescoed by Giacomo Ciesa with astronomical subjects devised by the astronomer who wanted the observatory. The instruments, on wheels, were rolled out onto the terrace, wider towards the south, the favoured direction for observing the sky from our hemisphere.
The tower's history is anything but peaceful. Built for defence, it was reworked in the thirteenth century by Ezzelino III da Romano and became notorious as a prison and place of torture for his enemies. In the fourteenth century the Carraresi built a new castle around it.
In 1761 the Venetian Senate decided to give the University of Padua an observatory. Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo and the architect Domenico Cerato chose the old tower, solid and with a clear view to the south, and the work was finished in 1777. A plaque above the door recalls how the prison tower became a place for studying the sky.
In 1773 Toaldo had the first lightning rod on a public building in the Republic of Venice fitted on the tower. In 1786 Goethe climbed up here too, and described the view from the top in his travel diary.
During the First World War the tower was requisitioned to spot enemy aircraft. With the birth of the Asiago observatory in 1942, the Specola stopped observing the sky and became an archive, a library and, since 1994, a museum.