Big, bigger, Santa Giustina. This enormous basilica on the southern edge of Padova’s historical centre will make a lasting impression on just about every visitor. The church adjoins the Prato della Valle, a large piazza in the shape of an ellipse where in Antiquity the theatre of Roman Patavium must…
The Scuola del Santo (also known as the Scoletta, ‘little school’) is the seat of the Archconfraternity of Saint Antonius of Padova. Saint Antonius (or Anthony) died in 1231, and according to tradition the confraternity was founded a couple of years after he was canonised in 1232. The first written…
The formal name of Padova’s Duomo is the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. In an older post I called the Duomo “a bit of a disappointment”. Having revisited the building in July of 2022, I still stand by that judgment. Fact is, the Duomo is just a bit boring. The…
The oratory of San Giorgio in Padova is often compared to the famous Cappella degli Scrovegni in the same city. It is indeed hard not to see similarities. Visitors enter a small private chapel with a sky blue barrel vault, radiant stars and impressive frescoes on the walls. The frescoes…
The small oratory of San Michele is all that remains of a church of which the history may go back all the way to the sixth century. The church was largely demolished in the nineteenth century, but a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and featuring colourful fourteenth-century frescoes by…
The Reggia Carrarese is the complex of buildings from which members of the Da Carrara family governed the city of Padova in the fourteenth century. Unfortunately virtually nothing is left of this complex. In 1405 Venetian troops took Padova, causing the Carraresi to lose power (and in a couple of…
I like to consider myself somewhat of a museum tiger. I can spend hours in succession exploring the collections of the largest museums in the world. But Padova’s Musei Civici or Eremitani Museums were just too much for me. They are anything but boring, but simply too large to visit…
The Cappella degli Scrovegni is arguably Padova’s most famous monument. I had been looking forward to visiting it for quite some time and had made my reservation to see the chapel weeks in advance. These reservations are compulsory, and to protect the vulnerable frescoes inside, a maximum of 25 visitors…
The church of Sant’Antonio di Padova, known as Il Santo to locals, is not just any church. It is in fact the second most important church of the Order of the Franciscans, after the Papal Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. It is huge, but not as large as the…
I can only describe the church of the Eremitani in Padova as a pleasant surprise. We still had about an hour to go before we could visit the famous Cappella degli Scrovegni, so we decided to pop in here and have a look. Our expectations were quite low, as the…
The city of Padova was known as Patavium in Antiquity. It suffered badly during the fifth and sixth century invasions of peoples like the Huns and the Longobards. The city opened its gates to the former in 452, while the latter almost completely destroyed it in 602. Padova was again…
The Duomo of Padova, i.e. the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, is a bit of a disappointment. The building we see today was constructed between 1551 and 1754, replacing an earlier edifice. Its exterior, with an undecorated facade in naked brick, is simple and unimpressive. Somehow the builders never got…