Padua Attractions

History and art

Under the early Empire the Roman Patavium was one of the wealthiest cities in Italy. It was destroyed by the Huns in 452, but thereafter enjoyed a further period of prosperity. In 1164 it became the first town in northern Italy to free itself from Hohenstaufen rule. During the subsequent conflicts it usually supported the Guelfs. In 1318 it passed into the hands of the house of Carrara, and in 1405 was annexd by Venice. The Roman historian Livy lived in Padua and died there in a.d. 7. In the early 13th century the eloquent preacher St Antony (b. in Lisbon 1195, d. 1231 at Arcella, 2.5km/1.5mi north of Padua) lived and worked in Padua. The town's importance during the medieval period and at the Renaissance rested mainly on its university, founded in 1222 and extended by Frederick II in 1238, which became the first center of humanism and also exerted a great attraction on artists. During the 14th century the finest works of art produced in Padua were by incomers like Giotto, Giovanni Pisano and Altichiero; and the great flower- ing of art in the 15th century was due to Florentine artists, among them Donatello, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno, who influenced sculptors as well as the great painter Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506).

In the center of the old town of Padua is the Piazza Cavour, from which the busy Via III Febbraio runs south. On the right is the Neo-Classical Caffè Pedrocchi (rebuilt after the Second World War), which when it was first opened in 1831 was the largest cafe in Europe. It played an important part in the history of the Risorgimento, and is still the resort of professors and students of the university.