Padua

Comune di Padova
Palazzo della Ragione
Location of Padua in Italy
Country	Italy
Region	Veneto
Province	Padua (PD)
Mayor	Flavio Zanonato (since June 14, 2004)
Elevation	12 m (39 ft)
Area	92 km² (36 sq mi)
Population (as of December 31, 2004)
- Total	212,500
- Density	2,310/km² (5,983/sq mi)
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	45°25′N 11°52′E
Gentilic	Padovani or Patavini
Dialing code	049
Postal code	35100
Frazioni	Altichiero, Arcella, Bassanello, Brusegana, Camin, Chiesanuova, Forcellini, Guizza, Mandria, Montà, Mortise, Paltana, Ponte di Brenta, Ponterotto, Pontevigodarzere, Sacra Famiglia, Salboro, Stanga, Terranegra, Volta Brusegana
Patron	St. Anthony of Padua
- Day	June 13
Website: www.comune.padova.it

Padua (Italian: Padova IPA: ['padova], Latin: Patavium, Venetian: Padoa) is a city in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital, the economic, and the communications hub of the of Padova province. Padua's population is 212,500 (2008). The city is sometimes included, with Venice (Italian Venezia), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area; population 1,600,000.

The city is picturesque, with a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal piazze, and many bridges crossing the various branches of the Bacchiglione, which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat.

Padua is the setting for most of the action in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Geography

Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River, 40 km west of Venice and 29km southeast of Vicenza. The Brenta River, which once ran through the city, still touches the northern districts. Its agricultural setting is the Pianura Veneta, the "Venetian plain," To the city's south west lies the Euganaean Hills, praised by Lucan and Martial, Petrarch, Ugo Foscolo, and Shelley.

Elevation

Padua has a Mediterranean climate. The average maximum temperature in July is around 84°F (29°C), and can be hot, humid and somewhat energy-sapping. The average maximum daytime temperature in January is 45°F (7°C). January, February and March are the months with the least rainfall, so days can be crisp and stunning (if there's no fog). Mean annual precipitation is 26 inches (677mm).

Rivers and canals Size – land area, size comparison Environmental issues Districts

History

The Cathedral of Padua.

Tronco Maestro Riviera: a pedestrian walk along a section of the "inland waterway" or naviglio interno of Padua.

File:Palazzo della Ragione Padua Fassade.jpg

Palazzo della Ragione.

This tempera, Two Christians before the Judges, hangs in the city's cathedral.

Façade of the church of San Gaetano Thiene, (1574-86) by Vincenzo Scamozzi

The apse area of Santa Sofia.

The town prospered greatly and, in the 11th–13th century, was a leading Italian commune. The poet Dante lived there, and St Anthony of Padua is buried there. It was governed by the Carrara family from 1318 to 1405, when it passed to Venice, which held it until 1797. Under Austrian dominion from 1815 to 1866, it was active in the Risorgimento (movement for Italian independence); a rising took place there in February 1848. It was heavily bombed in World War II, and the frescoes by Andrea Mantegna in the Church of the Eremitani were almost completely destroyed. xxxxxxx

Patavium, as Padua was known by the Romans, according to legend, was founded in 1183 B.C.E. by the Trojan prince Antenor, who was supposed to have led the people of Eneti or Veneti from Paphlagonia to Italy. Patavium was inhabited by (Adriatic) Veneti, reputed for their excellent breed of horses and the wool of their sheep. Its men fought for the Romans at Cannae.

The city was a Roman municipium since 45 B.C.E., and became so powerful that it was reportedly able to raise 200,000 fighting men. The Roman historian Livy was born near there in 59 B.C.E.

The area is said to have been Christianized by Saint Prosdocimus (died 100 C.E.). He is venerated as the first bishop of the city.

Padua suffered from the invasion of the Huns under Attila (452). It then passed under the Gothic kings Odoacer (435–493), and Theodoric the Great (454–526). However, during the Gothic War it submitted to the Greeks in 540. The city was seized again by the Goths under Totila, but was restored to the Eastern Empire by Narses in 568.

It then fell under the control of the Lombards. In 601, the city rose in revolt, against Agilulf, the Lombard king. After suffering a long (12 years) and bloody siege, it was stormed and burned by him. The Padua of antiquity was destroyed; the remains of an amphitheater (the Arena) and some bridge foundations are all that remain of Roman Padua today.

Padua was still weak when the Franks succeeded the Lombards as masters of northern Italy. At the Diet of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 828, the duchy and march of Friuli, in which Padua lay, was divided into four counties, one of which took its title from the city of Padua.

Magyars sacked the city in 899.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the citizens established a constitution, and set up a legislative assembly, and a credenza, or executive body.

During the next century, Padua fought Venice and Vicenza for the right to use the Bacchiglione and the Brenta water way. This meant that the city grew in power and self-reliance.

The great families of Camposampiero, Este, and Da Romano began to emerge and to divide the Paduan district among themselves. The citizens, in order to protect their liberties, were obliged to elect a podestà. Their choice first fell on one of the Este family.

A fire devastated Padua in 1174. This required the virtual rebuilding of the city.

Padua belonged to the Lombard League, an alliance formed around 1167 including most of the cities of northern Italy.

In 1236, Frederick II established his ally Ezzelino III da Romano (1194–1259) in Padua and the neighbouring cities, who became infamous as a cruel tyrant. Ezzelino was unseated in June 1256 without civilian bloodshed, thanks to Pope Alexander IV.

Padua then enjoyed a period of calm and prosperity: the basilica of the saint was begun; and the Paduans became masters of Vicenza. The university (the third in Italy) was founded in 1222, and it flourished in the 1200s. The city exhumed a large stone sarcophagus in the year 1274 and declared these to represent the relics of Trojan prince Antenor.

However, the advances of Padua in the 13th century finally brought them into conflict with Can Grande della Scala (1291–1329), lord of Verona. In 1311 Padua had to yield to Verona.

Jacopo da Carrara was elected lord of Padua in 1318. From then till 1405, nine members of the enlightened Carraresi family succeeded one another as lords of the city, with the exception of a brief period of Scaligeri overlordship between 1328 and 1337 and two years (1388-1390) when Giangaleazzo Visconti held the town. The Carraresi period was a long period of restlessness, for the Carraresi were constantly at war. In 1387, John Hawkwood won the Battle of Castagnaro for Padova, against Giovanni Ordelaffi, for Verona.

The Carraresi period finally came to an end as power of the Visconti and of Venice grew in importance.

Venetian rule

Padua passed under Venetian rule in 1405, and so mostly remained until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.

There was just a brief period when the city changed hands (in 1509) during the wars of the League of Cambray. On December 10, 1508, representatives of the Papacy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Ferdinand I of Spain concluded the League of Cambrai against the Republic. The agreement provided for the complete dismemberment of Venice's territory in Italy and for its partition among the signatories: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of the Habsburg, was to receive Padua in addition to Verona and other territories. In 1509 Padua was taken for just a few weeks by Imperial supporters. Venetian troops quickly recovered it and successfully defended Padua during siege by Imperial troops.

The city was governed by two Venetian nobles, a podestà for civil and a captain for military affairs. Each was elected for 16 months. Under these governors, the great and small councils continued to discharge municipal business and to administer the Paduan law, contained in the statutes of 1276 and 1362. The treasury was managed by two chamberlains; and every five years the Paduans sent one of their nobles to reside as nuncio in Venice, and to watch the interests of his native town.

Venice fortified Padua with new walls, built between 1507 and 1544, with a series of monumental gates.

Austrian rule

In 1797, the Venetian Republic was wiped off the map by the Treaty of Campo Formio, and Padua was ceded to the Austrian Empire. After the fall of Napoleon, in 1814, the city became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.

The Austrians were unpopular with progressive circles in northern Italy. In Padua, the year of revolutions of 1848 saw a student revolt which on February 8 turned the University and the Caffè Pedrocchi into battlegrounds in which students and ordinary Paduans fought side by side.

Under Austrian rule, Padua began its industrial development; one of the first Italian rail tracks, Padua-Venice, was built in 1845.

In 1866, the battle of Koniggratz gave Italy the opportunity to push the Austrians out of the old Venetian republic as Padua and the rest of the Veneto were annexed to the recently united Kingdom of Italy.

Italian rule

Annexed to Italy during 1866, Padua was at the centre of the poorest area of Northern Italy, as Veneto was until 1960s. Despite this, the city flourished in the following decades both economically and socially, developing its industry, being an important agricultural market and having a very important cultural and technological centre as the University. The city hosted also a major military command and many regiments.

World War I

When Italy entered World War I (1914-1918) on May 24, 1915, Padua was chosen as the main command of the Italian Army. The king, Vittorio Emanuele III, and the commander in chief Cadorna went to live in Padua for the war period. After the defeat of Italy in the battle of Caporetto in autumn 1917, the front line was situated on the river Piave. This was just 50-60km from Padua, and the city was in range from the Austrian artillery. However the Italian military command did not withdraw. The city was bombed several times (about 100 civilian deaths). A memorable feat was Gabriele D'Annunzio's flight to Vienna from the nearby San Pelagio Castle air field.

A year later, the danger to Padua was removed. In late October 1918, the Italian Army won the decisive battle of Vittorio Veneto (exactly a year after Caporetto), and the Austrian forces collapsed. The armistice was signed in Padua, at Villa Giusti, on November 3, 1918, with Austria-Hungary surrendering to Italy.

During the war, industry progressed strongly, and this gave Padua a base for further post-war development. In the years immediately following the Great War, Padua developed outside the historical town, enlarging and growing in population. even if labor and social strife was rampant at the time.

In the years immediately after World War I, strikes and clashes swept Padua as war veterans struggled to re-enter civilian life. The Fascist party came to be seen as the defender of property and order against revolution, and Padua wasthe site of one of the largest Fascist rallies, when 300,000 people attended one Mussolini speech.

New buildings, in typical Fascist architecture, sprang up in the city. Examples can be found today in the buildings surrounding Piazza Spalato (today Piazza Insurrezione), the railway station, the new part of City Hall, and part of the Bo Palace hosting the University.

Following Italy's defeat in the World War II (1939-1945) on September 8, 1943, Padua became part of the Italian Social Republic, i.e., the puppet state of the Nazi occupiers. The city hosted the Ministry of Public Instruction of the new state, as well as military and militia commands and a military airport. The Resistenza, the Italian partisans, was active against both the new Fascist rule and the Nazis. One of the main leaders was the University vice-chancellor Concetto Marchesi.

Padua was bombed several times by Allied planes. The worst hit areas were the railway station and the northern district of Arcella. During one of these bombings, the beautiful Eremitani church, with Mantegna frescoes, was destroyed (considered by some art historians to be Italy's biggest wartime cultural loss).

The city was finally liberated by partisans and British troops on April 28, 1945. A small Commonwealth War Cemetery is in the west part of the city, to remember the sacrifice of these troops.

After the war, the city developed rapidly, reflecting Veneto's rise from being the poorest region in northern Italy to one of the richest and most active regions of modern Italy.

Government

Italy is a republic in which the president is chief of state who is elected by an electoral college for a seven-year term. The prime minister, who is head of government, is appointed by the president and confirmed by parliament. The bicameral Parlamento consists of a senate of 315 members, and the chamber of deputies of 630 members, both houses elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms.

Padua is a city, or comune, in the Veneto region of northern [[Italy], one of Italy's 20 regions, of which Venice is the capital.

Italy's 100 provinces have their own local elections. Each province has a prefect who is appointed by and responds to the central government, which he locally represents.

The comune provides many basic civil functions. It has a registry of births and deaths, a registry of deeds, and it contracts for local roads and public works. It is headed by a mayor (sindaco) assisted by a council of aldermen, the Consiglio Comunale. The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the Municipio, or Palazzo Comunale.

Economy

Padua is an important rail and road junction.

Per capita GDP, rank Financial and business services sector Tourism Manufacturing involves electrical and agricultural machinery, motorcycles, chemicals, and artificial and synthetic textiles.

Transport: Road, rail, air, sea The industrial area of Padua was created in 1946, in the east part of the city, to become one of the biggest industrial zones in Europe, it has an area of 11 milion sqm. Here there are the main offices of 1300 industries and works 50.000 people from all over the world. In Padua there's the biggest intermodal centre in Italy. From each part of Europe the goods arrive in Padua, where they are send in all over the world, especially in Asia. In the industrial zone there are 2 train stations, 1 fluvial port, three truck terminals, 2 highway exits and a lot of connected services, hotels, post offices, directional centre.

Transport

By car, there are 3 motorways (autostrade in Italian): A4 Brescia-Padova, connecting it to Verona (then to Brenner Pass, Innsbruck and Bavaria) and Milan (then Switzerland, Turin and France); A4 Padova-Venezia, to Venice then Belluno (for Dolomites holiday resorts like Cortina) Trieste and Tarvisio (for Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Eastern Europe); A13 Bologna-Padova, to Ferrara and Bologna (then Central and South Italy). You have to pay a toll to use the most part of Italian motorways. Roads connect Padua with all the big and small centers of the region. A freeway with more than 20 exit surrounds the city, connecting districts and the small towns of the hinterland.

Padua has many train stations. The largest is Padova Centrale, with 16 platforms, and is one of the biggest stations in Italy. From Padova leaves more than 450 trains per day. The station is attended by over than 20 millions passengers per year. Other train stations are Padova Ponte di Brenta, Padova San Lazzaro, Padova Campo Marte. From Padova leaves a High speed train to Milan and Venice, you can reach Milan in 1h and 51 min and Venice in 20 min. From Padova you can reach these national destinations:

Padua is relatively close to airports at Venice, Verona, Treviso and Bologna. The Padua airport, the "Gino Allegri" or Aeroporto civile di Padova "Gino Allegri", or Aeroporto di Padova, is no longer served by regularly scheduled flights. Padua is, however, the home of one of Italy's four Area Control Centers.

Venice, approximately 50 km away, is the nearest seaport.

Urban public transport includes public buses together with a new tramway line (connecting southern district of Guizza to train station then to northern district of Arcella - with another three lines yet to be built) and private taxis. There's also a CitySightseeing tour Hop on Hop Off.

The centre of the city is partly closed to vehicles, except for residents and permitted vehicles. There are some car parks surrounding the district. In this area, as well, there are some streets and squares restricted to pedestrian and bicycle use only.

Padua has got approximately 40 bus lines, which are served by new buses, 1 years old, with a television that displays the line plan, the next stop, the most important monuments and the connection line and the expected waiting time for each line. Each tram/bus is equipped with security cameras and controlled by GPS.

The Veneto Region is building in Padua a metro line around the city with 15 new stations, the name will be SFMR and included the province of Venice.

Demographics

In 2007, there were 210,301 people residing in Padua, located in the province of Padua, Veneto, of whom 47.1% were male and 52.9% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 14.87 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 23.72 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Padua residents is 45 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Padua grew by 2.21 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85 percent.[1] The current birth rate of Padua is 8.49 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.

As of 2006, 90.66% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group comes from other European nations (the largest being Romanians, Moldovans, and Albanians): 5.14%, sub-saharan Africa 1.08%, and East Asia: 1.04%. Currently 1 in 5 babies born in Padua has a foreign parent. The city is predominantly Roman Catholic, but due to immigration now has some Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Hindu followers.[2][3]

Main sights

• The Scrovegni Chapel (Italian: Cappella degli Scrovegni) is Padua's most famous sight. It houses a remarkable cycle of frescoes completed in 1305 by Giotto. It was Commissioned by Enrico degli Scrovegni, a wealthy banker, as a private chapel once attached to his family's palazzo. It is also called the "Arena Chapel" because it stands on the site of a Roman-era arena. The fresco cycle details the life of the Virgin Mary and has been acknowledged by many to be one of the most important fresco cycles in the world. Entrance to the chapel is an elaborate ordeal, as it involves spending 15 minutes prior to entrance in a climate-controlled, airlocked vault, used to stabilize the temperature between the outside world and the inside of the chapel. This is to improve preservation. Book ahead if planning a visit.

• The Palazzo della Ragione, with its great hall on the upper floor, is reputed to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe; the hall is nearly rectangular, its length 81.5 m, its breadth 27 m, and its height 24 m; the walls are covered with allegorical frescoes; the building stands upon arches, and the upper storey is surrounded by an open loggia, not unlike that which surrounds the basilica of Vicenza. The Palazzo was begun in 1172 and finished in 1219. In 1306 Fra Giovanni, an Augustinian friar, covered the whole with one roof. Originally there were three roofs, spanning the three chambers into which the hall was at first divided; the internal partition walls remained till the fire of 1420, when the Venetian architects who undertook the restoration removed them, throwing all three spaces into one and forming the present great hall, the Salone. The new space was refrescoed by Nicolo' Miretto and Stefano da Ferrara, working from 1425 to 1440. Beneath the great hall, there is a centuries-old market.

• In the Piazza dei Signori is the beautiful loggia called the Gran Guardia, (1493 - 1526), and close by is the Palazzo del Capitanio, the residence of the Venetian governors, with its great door, the work of Giovanni Maria Falconetto, the Veronese architect-sculptor who introduced Renaissance architecture to Padua and who completed the door in 1532. Falconetto was the architect of Alvise Cornaro's garden loggia, (Loggia Cornaro), the first fully Renaissance building in Padua [4]. Nearby, the Cathedral, remodelled in 1552 after a design of Michelangelo. It contains works by Nicolò Semitecolo, Francesco Bassano and Giorgio Schiavone. The nearby Baptistry, consecrated in 1281, houses the most important frescoes cycle by Giusto de' Menabuoi.

The Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.

The Basilica of St. Giustina, facing the great piazza of Prato della Valle.

• The most famous of the Paduan churches is the Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova, locally simply known as "Il Santo". The bones of the saint rest in a chapel richly ornamented with carved marbles, the work of various artists, among them of Sansovino and Falconetto. The basilica was begun about the year 1230 and completed in the following century. Tradition says that the building was designed by Nicola Pisano. It is covered by seven cupolas, two of them pyramidal. There are also four beautiful cloisters to visit. Sant'Antonio is treated as Vatican territory.^{[citation needed]}

• Donatello's magnificent equestrian statue of the Venetian general Gattamelata (Erasmo da Narni) can be found on the piazza in front of the Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova. It was cast in 1453, and was the first full-size equestrian bronze cast since antiquity. It was inspired by the Marcus Aurelius equestrian sculpture at the Capitoline Hill in Rome.

• Not far from the Gattamelata statue are the St. George Oratory (13th century), with frescoes by Altichiero, and the Scuola di S. Antonio (16th century), with frescoes by Tiziano (Titian).

• One of the best known symbols of Padua is the Prato della Valle, a 90,000 m² elliptical square. This is believed to be the biggest in Europe, after Red Square in Moscow. In the centre is a wide garden surrounded by a ditch, which is lined by 78 statues portraying famous citizens.

• The abbey and the basilica of Santa Giustina. In the 15th century, it became one of the most important monasteries in the area, until it was suppressed by Napoleon in 1810. In 1919 it was reopened. The tombs of several saints are housed in the interior, including those of Justine, St. Prosdocimus, St. Maximus, St. Urius, St. Felicita, St. Julianus, as well as relics of the Apostle St. Matthias and the Evangelist St. Luke. This is home to some art, including the Martyrdom of St. Justine by Paolo Veronese. The complex was founded in the 5th century on the tomb of the namesake saint, Justine of Padua.

• The Church of the Eremitani is an Augustinian church of the 13th century, containing the tombs of Jacopo (1324) and Ubertinello (1345) da Carrara, lords of Padua, and for the chapel of SS James and Christopher, formerly illustrated by Mantegna's frescoes. This was largely destroyed by the Allies in World War II, because it was next to the Nazi headquarters. The old monastery of the church now houses the municipal art gallery.

• Santa Sofia is most likely Padova's most ancient church. The crypt was begun in the late 10th century by Venetian craftsmen. It has a basilica plan with Romanesque-Gothic interior and Byzantine elements. The apse was built in the 12th century. The edifice appears to be tilting slightly due to the soft terrain.

• The church of San Gaetano (1574-1586) was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, on an unusual octagonal plan. The interior, decorated with polychrome marbles, houses a precious Madonna and Child by Andrea Briosco, in Nanto stone.

• At the centre of the historical city, the buildings of Palazzo del Bò, the centre of the University

• The City Hall, called Palazzo Moroni, the wall of which is covered by the names of the Paduan deads in the different wars of Italy and which is attached to Palazzo della Ragione;

• The Caffé Pedrocchi, built in 1831 by architect Giuseppe Jappelli in neoclassical style with Egyptian influence. This is a little jewel of history and art for a café open for almost two centuries. It hosts the Risorgimento museum, and the near building of the Pedrocchino ("little Pedrocchi") in neogothic style.

• The city centre is surrounded by the 11km-long city walls, built during the early sixteenth century, by architects that included Michele Sanmicheli. There are only a few ruins left, together with two gates, of the smaller and inner thirteenth-century walls. There is also a castle, the Castello. Its main tower was transformed between 1767 and 1777 into an astronomical observatory known as Specola. However the other buildings were used as prisons during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are now being restored.

In the neighbourhood of Padua are numerous noble villas. These include:

• Villa Molin, in the Mandria fraction, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1597.
• Villa Mandiriola, (17th century), at Albignasego
• Villa Pacchierotti-Trieste (17th century), at Limena
• Villa Cittadella-Vigodarzere (19th century), at Saonara
• Villa Selvatico da Porto (15th-18th century), at Vigonza
• Villa Loredan, at Sant'Urbano.
• Villa Contarini, at Piazzola sul Brenta, built in 1546 by Palladio and enlarged in the following centuries, is the most important.

Culture

Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Italy
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii
Reference	824
Region**	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1997  (21st Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Antonianum. From its windows students could see St. Giustina.

Villa Molin at Mandria.

Padua has long been famous for its university, founded in 1222. Under the rule of Venice the university was governed by a board of three patricians, called the Riformatori dello Studio di Padova. The list of professors and alumni is long and illustrious, containing, among others, the names of Bembo, Sperone Speroni, the anatomist Vesalius, Copernicus, Fallopius, Fabrizio d'Acquapendente, Galileo Galilei, Pietro Pomponazzi, Reginald, later Cardinal Pole, Scaliger, Tasso and Sobieski. The university hosts the oldest anatomy theatre (built in 1594)

The university also hosts the oldest botanical garden (1545) in the world. The botanical garden Orto Botanico di Padova was founded as the garden of curative herbs attached to the University's faculty of medicine. It still contains an important collection of rare plants.

The place of Padua in the history of art is nearly as important as its place in the history of learning. The presence of the university attracted many distinguished artists, as Giotto, Fra Filippo Lippi and Donatello; and for native art there was the school of Francesco Squarcione, whence issued the great Mantegna.

Padua is also the birth place of the famous architect Andrea Palladio, whose XVIth century "ville" (country-houses) in the area of Padua, Venice, Vicenza and Treviso are among the most beautiful of Italy, and they were often copied during XVIIIth and XIXth centuries; and of Giovanni Battista Belzoni, adventure-man, engineer and egyptologist.

The famous sculptor Antonio Canova made his first work in Padua, one among the statues of Prato della Valle (now a copy stays at open air, while the original is in the Musei Civici, Civic Museums).

One the most relevant places in the life of the city has certainly been The Antonianum. Settled among Prato della Valle, the Saint Anthony church and the botanic Garden it has been built in 1897 by the Jesuit fathers, and kept alive until 2002. During WWII, under the lead of P.Messori Roncaglia SJ, it became the center of the resistance war against the Nazism. Indeed, it briefly survived P.Messori's death, and it was sold by the Jesuits in 2004. Some sites are trying to collect what can still be found of the college: (1) a no-profit pixel site is collecting links to whatever is available on the web; (2) a student association created in the college is still operating and connecting Alumni.

Consulates

In Padua are located the consulates of: Canada, Croatia, Ivory Coast, Peru, Poland, Switzerland and Uruguay. South Korean consulate is to be opened soon.

Sport

Padua is the home of Calcio Padova, a football team that plays in Italy's Serie C1 division, and who played 16 Serie A championships (last 2 in 1995 and 1996, but the previous 14 between 1929 and 1962); the Petrarca Padova rugby union team, winner of 11 national championships between 1970 and 1987; and a volleyball club, once called Petrarca Padova too, which plays in the Italian first division, and who won a CEV cup in 1994. Basketball, cycling (Padua has been for several years home of the famous Giro del Veneto), rowing (two teams among the best ones in Italy, Canottieri Padova and Padova Canottaggio), horse-riding and swimming are popular sports too.

The venues of these teams are: Stadio Euganeo for football and athletic, about 32,000 seats; Stadio Plebiscito for rugby union, about 9,000 seats; Palazzetto dello Sport San Lazzaro for volleyball and basketball, about 5,000 seats; Ippodromo Breda - Le Padovanelle for horse races. The old and glorious Stadio Appiani, which hosted up to 25,000 people, reduced to 10,000 ones for security reasons twenty years ago, and near to Prato della Valle in a central area, is almost abandoned and is to be restored. A small ice stadium for skating and hockey and a new 10,000 places venue for volleyball and basketball are to be built during 2008.

The F1 racing driver Riccardo Patrese (vice-champion 1992, 3rd place in 1989 and 1991; holds the world record for having started the most Formula One races) was born and lives in Padova; the racing driver Alex Zanardi lives in Padova too. The Bergamasco brothers were also born in Padova, as well as Bortolami, of the Italian Rugby national team.

Further reading

• Chierichetti, Sandro. 1973. Padua; an illustrated guide-book with plans of the monuments. Padua: B. Facchinelli. OCLC 1047092
• Gasparotto, Cesira. 1981. Padua: city of Saint Anthony. Venezia: Edizioni Storti. OCLC 56106326
• Kohl, Benjamin G. 2001. Culture and politics in early Renaissance Padua. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate. ISBN 9780860788713
• Lumley, Robert, and John Foot. 2004. Italian cityscapes: culture and urban change in contemporary Italy. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 9780859897372
• Maret, Russell. 2008. Mediaeval in Padua. New York: Russell Maret. OCLC 251491396

External links

• City of Padua Official Website
• The Basilica of St Anthony in Padua
• Photographs of Padua
• University Of Padova
• Anatomical Theater at the university of Padua
• University Botanical Garden
• Padova as a city protected by UNESCO
• Map of Padua
• Wikitravel Entry on Padua
• Video Introduction to Padua includes Scrovegni Chapel, Il Santo, and Prato della Valle
• Activities in Padova

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