Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mantegna in the Capella Overtari in the Chiesa degli Eremitani, the loss to art history was
incalculable. After half a century of painstaking reconstruction, the shattered, humidity-
damaged stories of Sts James and Christopher have been puzzled together, revealing
action-packed compositions and extreme perspectives that make Mantegna's saints look
like superheroes.
PALAZZO DEL BÒ
MAP
HISTORIC BUILDING
GOOGLE MAP
( 049 827 30 47; Via VIII Febbraio; adult/reduced €5/3.50; tours 9.15am, 10.15am & 11.15am Tue, Thu & Sat,
3.15pm, 4.15pm & 5.15pm Mon, Wed & Fri)
This Renaissance
palazzo
is the seat of Padua's history-
making
university
. Founded by renegade scholars from Bologna seeking greater intellectual
freedom, the university has employed some of Italy's greatest and most controversial
thinkers, including Copernicus, Galileo, Casanova and the world's first woman doctor of
philosophy, Eleonora Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (her statue graces the stairs). Guided
tours cover
Galileo's lecture hall
and the world's first
anatomy theatre
.
Built for autopsy in 1594, this six-tiered wooden hall is an ingenious spiral: students
circulated continuously so everyone got a close-up look at the dissection, while high
handrails prevented those in the heights, giddy from the overwhelming smell, from faint-
ing into the pit. Afterwards don't forget to pay your respects to the skulls of noble profess-
ors in the
graduation hall
. They donated themselves for dissection, given the difficulty in-
volved in acquiring fresh corpses.
Note that there are generally only two tours per day from November to March.
PALAZZO DELLA RAGIONE
( 049 820 50 06; Piazza delle Erbe; adult/reduced €4/2; 9am-7pm Tue-Sun, to 6pm Nov-Jan)
Ancient
Padua can be glimpsed in elegant twin squares separated by the triple-decker Gothic
Palazzo della Ragione, the city's tribunal dating from 1218. Inside, frescoes by Giotto
acolytes Giusto de' Menabuoi and Nicolò Mireto depict the astrological theories of
Padovan professor Pietro d'Abano, with images representing the months, seasons, saints,
animals and noteworthy Paduans (not necessarily in that order).
D'Abano's work, which drew on Arab sources, brought him into conflict with the
Church, and he was convicted posthumously of heresy. Unfortunately, the frescoes had to
be restored after a fire in 1420 and storm damage in 1756, but the reproductions are of
high quality.
HISTORIC BUILDING
CATHEDRAL
CHURCH
