Deep-dive

Identity: the Bo, the Santo, Prato della Valle

Three places sum up the city: the University, with its motto of "patavina libertas"; the basilica of St Anthony, a pilgrimage destination, feast on 13 June; Prato della Valle, the elliptical square with 78 statues. Two UNESCO sites: the Botanical Garden and the fourteenth-century fresco cycles.

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University and sayings

The University recalls eight centuries of history and links its motto, "Universa universis patavina libertas", to freedom of thought and opinion. It has 8 schools and 32 departments, a system of 11 museums (8 in the city) and the Sistema Bibliotecario Padovano, which joins the university libraries with the civic ones.

Paduans speak of their three "withouts": the "meadow without grass" (Prato della Valle), the "saint without a name" (the basilica of St Anthony, simply "il Santo") and the "café without doors" (the Caffè Pedrocchi, open day and night from 1831 to 1916).

Prato della Valle and the Santo

Prato della Valle is a large elliptical green island surrounded by a canal and 78 statues of illustrious figures; its present appearance dates from 1775, when the Venetian patrician Andrea Memmo had a marshy area drained. The basilica of Santa Giustina, 122 metres long and 82 wide, a national monument with a library of 130,000 volumes, faces the square.

The basilica of St Anthony belongs directly to the Holy See, receives millions of pilgrims a year and holds works by Donatello, by Altichiero da Zevio in the Oratory of San Giorgio and by Titian in the Scuola del Santo. The feast of St Anthony is on 13 June.

UNESCO heritage

The Botanical Garden, founded in 1545, keeps its original layout with the circular enclosure representing the world, surrounded by a ring of water; it is managed by the University and has been on the UNESCO List since 1997. The fourteenth-century fresco cycles, inscribed in 2021, bring together works by Giotto, Guariento di Arpo, Giusto de' Menabuoi, Altichiero da Zevio, Jacopo Avanzi and Jacopo da Verona, painted between 1302 and 1397.