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 2007)
- Total	210,301
- Density	[n.a.]
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 famous as the city where the poet Dante lived, where St Anthony of Padua is buried, and as the setting for most of the action in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Geography

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

Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River, 25 miles (40km) west of Venice and 18 miles (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.

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).

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.

History

The Cathedral of Padua.

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 central location and numerous rivers has meant that the area around Padua has been inhabited since the earliest times. 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 waterways.

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, a chief magistrate. Their choice first fell on one of the Este family.

Padua belonged to the Lombard League, an alliance formed around 1167 including most of the cities of northern Italy. A fire devastated Padua in 1174, requiring rebuilding of the city.

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 peace and prosperity. Work on the basilica of St Anthony was begun, the university (the third in Italy) was founded in 1222, and the city exhumed a large stone sarcophagus in the year 1274 and declared it to represent the relics of Trojan prince Antenor.

Padua's growth brought conflict with Can Grande della Scala (1291–1329), the lord of Verona, and in 1311, Padua had to yield to Verona.

Jacopo da Carrara was elected lord of Padua in 1318, and to 1405, nine members of the enlightened Carraresi family succeeded one another as lords of the city. The Carraresi period was variously described as a golden age and a 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.

Venetian rule

Padua passed to Venetian control in 1405, and remained thus until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, apart from a brief period when the city changed hands (in 1509) during the wars of the League of Cambray. 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 Treaty of Campo Formio ended the Venetian Republic, 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. Under Austrian rule, Padua began its industrial development; one of the first Italian rail tracks, Padua-Venice, was built in 1845.

In Padua, the year of revolutions of 1848, students revolted on February 8, turning the university and the Caffè Pedrocchi into battlegrounds in which students and Paduans fought side by side.

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.

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 during the war. 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. 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.

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.

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. Buildings surrounding Piazza Spalato, the railway station, the new part of City Hall, and part of the Bo Palace hosting the university, were constructed in the Fascist style of architecture.

World War II

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.

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

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.

Padua is an important rail and road junction, as well as being an agricultural, commercial, and major industrial center. 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. Here there are the main offices of 1300 industries and works 50,000 people from all over the world. The industrial zone alone has two train stations, one port, three truck terminals, two highway exits, and numerous services including hotels, and post offices.

Manufacturing involves electrical and agricultural machinery, motorcycles, chemicals, and artificial and synthetic textiles, and processed food.

Padova Centrale is the largest of the city's numerous train stations. A freeway with 20 exits surrounds the city, connecting districts and the small towns of the hinterland. Three motorways radiate from the city. Although the Padua airport is no longer served by regularly scheduled flights, Padua is relatively close to airports at Venice, Verona, Treviso and Bologna. Urban public transport includes buses and a new tramway line. A metro line was planned in 2008. The centre of the city is restricted to vehicles owned by residents and permitted vehicles.

Demographics

In 2007, there were 210,301 people residing in Padua, located in the province of Padua, Veneto, of whom 47.1 percent were male and 52.9 percent were female. 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]

As of 2006, 90.66 percent of the population was Italian. Most immigrants come from other European nations (the largest being Romanians, Moldovans, and Albanians): 5.14 percent, sub-saharan Africa 1.08 percent, and East Asia: 1.04 percent. Italian is the official language.

The city is predominantly Roman Catholic, but immigration has brought Orthodox Christian, Muslim, and Hindu followers.[2][3]

The University of Padua, founded in 1222, has a long and illustrious list of professors and alumni, 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.

Of interest

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

Villa Molin at Mandria.

The Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.

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

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 architect Andrea Palladio, known for 16th century "ville" (country-houses) built in Padua, Venice, Vicenza and Treviso; and of Giovanni Battista Belzoni, adventurer, engineer and Egyptologist. The Antonianum, built in 1897 by the Jesuit fathers, became the center of the resistance against the Nazism during World War II. Main sights include:

• The Scrovegni Chapel (Italian: Cappella degli Scrovegni), which is Padua's most famous sight, houses a cycle of frescoes completed in 1305 by Giotto, and stands on the site of a Roman-era arena.

• The Palazzo della Ragione, which with its great hall on the upper floor, is reputed to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe. The hall's length is 81.5 meters, its breadth 27 meters, and its height 24 meters, and the walls are covered with allegorical frescoes. The Palazzo was begun in 1172 and finished in 1219. In 1306 Fra Giovanni, an Augustinian friar, covered the whole with one roof. The internal partition walls remained till the fire of 1420, when Venetian architects removed them, forming the present great hall, the Salone. 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. 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 di Sant'Antonio da Padova, locally simply known as "Il Santo", which is the most famous Paduan church. The bones of the saint rest in a chapel richly ornamented with carved marbles. 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.

• The Prato della Valle, which is a symbol of Padua, is a 90,000 m² elliptical square, believed to be the biggest in Europe, after Red Square in Moscow.

• The abbey and the basilica of Santa Giustina, which was founded in the fifth century on the tomb of the namesake saint, Justine of Padua, is the location of the tombs of several saints — 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.

• The Church of the Eremitani, which is an Augustinian church of the 13th century, and contains the tombs of Jacopo (1324) and Ubertinello (1345) da Carrara, lords of Padua, and the chapel of saints 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.

• The Santa Sofia, which is most likely Padua'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 church of San Gaetano (1574-1586), which 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.

• The City Hall, called Palazzo Moroni, the wall of which is covered by the names of the Paduan deceased 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.

Padua is the home of Calcio Padova, a football team that plays in Italy's Serie C1 division, the Petrarca Padova rugby union team, and a volleyball club, once called Petrarca Padova too, which plays in the Italian first division. 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.

Stadio Euganeo, for football and athletics, has about 32,000 seats; Stadio Plebiscito for rugby union, has about 9000 seats; Palazzetto dello Sport San Lazzaro for volleyball and basketball, has about 5,000 seats.

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.

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

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Padua Retrieved November 3, 2008.
• The Basilica of St Anthony in Padua Retrieved November 3, 2008.
• Photographs of Padua Retrieved November 3, 2008.
• University Of Padova Retrieved November 3, 2008.
• Padova as a city protected by UNESCO Retrieved November 3, 2008.
• Map of Padua Retrieved November 3, 2008.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Padua  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Padua"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.