Description
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 place for festivals, tournaments and the evening stroll.
On the west side rises the Clock Tower, its lower part shaped like a triumphal arch designed in 1532 by Giovanni Maria Falconetto, with the Lion of St Mark on top. Its astronomical clock, unveiled in 1437, still shows the hours, the days of the month and the signs of the zodiac.
Libra, however, is missing from the signs. Perhaps the maker followed Egyptian astrology, which counted only eleven, or perhaps the work was left unfinished because the client did not pay regularly.
On the south side stands the Renaissance Loggia del Consiglio, to the east the little church of San Clemente. In the square rises the Colonna Marciana, a Roman column found in 1764 and topped by the Lion of St Mark, remade in 1870 after French troops had destroyed the original.
On either side of the tower, two niches hold busts of St Prosdocimus and St Anthony. During the Napoleonic occupation they were walled up, and reappeared only with the restoration at the end of the 19th century: St Anthony still had two mocking moustaches drawn on in charcoal.
On the paving, near the flagpole, a lyre, the initials P.G. and a July date are carved. The story goes that an elegant young man lost his lyre-shaped brooch here in July 1891 and found it on 15 July on this very stone, where he had the memory carved.
The square changed its name several times: «of Desolation» after the wars at the end of the 14th century, «of Triumphs» for its festivals, and in 1848, during the uprisings against Austria, «Piazza Pio IX». On Fat Thursday a bull hunt was held here.
Under the porticoes on the north side is the oldest pizzeria in Padua, opened in 1953: it was such a success that traffic wardens had to manage the queue, and in 1956 the pizza maker Gennaro turned out 1,500 pizzas in a single day.
On the west side rises the Clock Tower, its lower part shaped like a triumphal arch designed in 1532 by Giovanni Maria Falconetto, with the Lion of St Mark on top. Its astronomical clock, unveiled in 1437, still shows the hours, the days of the month and the signs of the zodiac.
Libra, however, is missing from the signs. Perhaps the maker followed Egyptian astrology, which counted only eleven, or perhaps the work was left unfinished because the client did not pay regularly.
On the south side stands the Renaissance Loggia del Consiglio, to the east the little church of San Clemente. In the square rises the Colonna Marciana, a Roman column found in 1764 and topped by the Lion of St Mark, remade in 1870 after French troops had destroyed the original.
On either side of the tower, two niches hold busts of St Prosdocimus and St Anthony. During the Napoleonic occupation they were walled up, and reappeared only with the restoration at the end of the 19th century: St Anthony still had two mocking moustaches drawn on in charcoal.
On the paving, near the flagpole, a lyre, the initials P.G. and a July date are carved. The story goes that an elegant young man lost his lyre-shaped brooch here in July 1891 and found it on 15 July on this very stone, where he had the memory carved.
The square changed its name several times: «of Desolation» after the wars at the end of the 14th century, «of Triumphs» for its festivals, and in 1848, during the uprisings against Austria, «Piazza Pio IX». On Fat Thursday a bull hunt was held here.
Under the porticoes on the north side is the oldest pizzeria in Padua, opened in 1953: it was such a success that traffic wardens had to manage the queue, and in 1956 the pizza maker Gennaro turned out 1,500 pizzas in a single day.