Description
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 ring of statues: a student's stroll, on the grass and in the shade.
The Memmia island is the heart of the square: about twenty thousand square meters, with trees, benches and a large sculptural sphere at the center. The canal around it is crossed on four bridges, and the south bridge is called the Bridge of the Popes.
The real show is the statues, 78 in all: 40 on the outer ring and 38 on the inner one. They are university professors, artists, military leaders and ancient rulers of Padua, all tied to the city. They are carved from Vicenza stone, a soft limestone.
Among others there is the Antenor, the mythical founder of Padua, and the statue of Giovanni Poleni, the only one carved by Antonio Canova (today it is a 1963 copy). Among all these men there is only one woman: the bust of the poet Gaspara Stampa, at the foot of the statue of Andrea Briosco.
Around the square there are buildings worth a look: the Basilica of Santa Giustina, the Loggia Amulea and Palazzo Angeli, built in the fifteenth century as the residence of Cardinal Bessarion. On Saturdays it hosts the city's traditional market.
The name is deceptive. It is called a "prato" (meadow), but for centuries there was hardly any grass, and the "valle" (valley) was a hollow where water stood. Already in Roman times it was the Campus Martius, with a theater; in the Middle Ages it hosted markets, fairs, jousts and horse races, but floods turned it into a swamp.
What changed everything was Andrea Memmo, sent from Venice to govern the city in 1775. He had ten thousand cartloads of earth brought in to raise the center and ringed it with a canal that collects rainwater. The island took his name. It was meant to hold 54 wooden shops, whose rent would help pay for the works.
The statues helped raise money too: every citizen or group that paid for one contributed to the project, between 135 and 150 zecchini. The rules were strict: no saints, no living people, only figures tied to Padua.
The first statue, a Cicero, was taken down right away because it had nothing to do with Padua. In its place Antenor was set, a gift to the city from Memmo himself.
Don't miss
• The 78 statues on the two banks of the canal.
• The statue of Giovanni Poleni.
• The Basilica of Santa Giustina.
Did you know?
• There were meant to be 88 statues: six Venetian doges were knocked down by Napoleon's soldiers in 1797.
• In the nineteenth century the Prato had no grass, because of too many plane trees: it was one of the "three withouts" of a popular saying about Padua.
The Memmia island is the heart of the square: about twenty thousand square meters, with trees, benches and a large sculptural sphere at the center. The canal around it is crossed on four bridges, and the south bridge is called the Bridge of the Popes.
The real show is the statues, 78 in all: 40 on the outer ring and 38 on the inner one. They are university professors, artists, military leaders and ancient rulers of Padua, all tied to the city. They are carved from Vicenza stone, a soft limestone.
Among others there is the Antenor, the mythical founder of Padua, and the statue of Giovanni Poleni, the only one carved by Antonio Canova (today it is a 1963 copy). Among all these men there is only one woman: the bust of the poet Gaspara Stampa, at the foot of the statue of Andrea Briosco.
Around the square there are buildings worth a look: the Basilica of Santa Giustina, the Loggia Amulea and Palazzo Angeli, built in the fifteenth century as the residence of Cardinal Bessarion. On Saturdays it hosts the city's traditional market.
The name is deceptive. It is called a "prato" (meadow), but for centuries there was hardly any grass, and the "valle" (valley) was a hollow where water stood. Already in Roman times it was the Campus Martius, with a theater; in the Middle Ages it hosted markets, fairs, jousts and horse races, but floods turned it into a swamp.
What changed everything was Andrea Memmo, sent from Venice to govern the city in 1775. He had ten thousand cartloads of earth brought in to raise the center and ringed it with a canal that collects rainwater. The island took his name. It was meant to hold 54 wooden shops, whose rent would help pay for the works.
The statues helped raise money too: every citizen or group that paid for one contributed to the project, between 135 and 150 zecchini. The rules were strict: no saints, no living people, only figures tied to Padua.
The first statue, a Cicero, was taken down right away because it had nothing to do with Padua. In its place Antenor was set, a gift to the city from Memmo himself.
Don't miss
• The 78 statues on the two banks of the canal.
• The statue of Giovanni Poleni.
• The Basilica of Santa Giustina.
Did you know?
• There were meant to be 88 statues: six Venetian doges were knocked down by Napoleon's soldiers in 1797.
• In the nineteenth century the Prato had no grass, because of too many plane trees: it was one of the "three withouts" of a popular saying about Padua.