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Padua



 
 
Padua ( , Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: Patavium, ) is a city in the Veneto
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
, northern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. It is the capital of the province of Padua
Province of Padua

The Province of Padua is a Provinces of Italy in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua.It has an area of 2,142 km?, and a total population of 849,857 ....
 and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 (Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 Venezia), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c. 1,600,000.

Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River
Bacchiglione

The Bacchiglione is a river that flows through northern Italy. It rises in the Alps and empties into the Gulf of Venice, on the Adriatic Sea, near Chioggia....
, 40 km west of Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 and 29 km southeast of Vicenza
Vicenza

Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province of Vicenza in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione....
.






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Padua ( , Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: Patavium, ) is a city in the Veneto
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
, northern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. It is the capital of the province of Padua
Province of Padua

The Province of Padua is a Provinces of Italy in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua.It has an area of 2,142 km?, and a total population of 849,857 ....
 and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 (Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 Venezia), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c. 1,600,000.

Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River
Bacchiglione

The Bacchiglione is a river that flows through northern Italy. It rises in the Alps and empties into the Gulf of Venice, on the Adriatic Sea, near Chioggia....
, 40 km west of Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 and 29 km southeast of Vicenza
Vicenza

Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province of Vicenza in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione....
. The Brenta River
Brenta River

The Brenta is an Italy river that runs from the Province of Trento to the Adriatic Sea just south of the Venetian lagoon in the Veneto region....
, 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
Colli Euganei

Colli Euganei are located in the Veneto region of northern Italy, a few kilometers south of Padua. They take their name from the Euganei, a semi-mythical population who inhabited the area before the Adriatic Veneti....
, praised by Lucan and Martial
Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin language poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Ancient Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the Roman emperor Domitian, Nerva and Trajan....
, Petrarch
Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English language as Petrarch, was an Italy scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanism. Petrarch is often popularly called the "Father of Humanism"....
, Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo

Ugo Foscolo was a Greece-born Italy writer, revolutionary and poet. On the death of his father, a physician in Split /Spalato, today Croatia , the family removed to Venice, and at the University of Padua Foscolo completed the studies begun at the Dalmatian grammar school....
, and Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major England Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest Lyric poetry in the English language....
.

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
Bacchiglione

The Bacchiglione is a river that flows through northern Italy. It rises in the Alps and empties into the Gulf of Venice, on the Adriatic Sea, near Chioggia....
, which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat
Moat

A moat is deep, broad trench, usually filled with water, that surrounds a structure, installation, or town, normally to provide it with a preliminary line of Defense ....
.

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

The Taming of the Shrew is an early Shakespearean comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1590 and 1594. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a drunken tinker named Sly is tricked into thinking he is a nobleman by a mischievous Lord....
.

History


Antiquity

Padua claims to be the oldest city in northern Italy. According to a tradition dated at least to Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
, and rediscovered by the medieval commune to glorify itself, it was founded in 1183 BC by the Trojan
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 prince Antenor
Antenor

Antenor was an Athens sculptor, of the latter part of the 6th century BC. He was named after the Greek mythology figure also called Antenor . He was the creator of the joint statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, set up by the Athenians on the expulsion of Hippias ....
, who was supposed to have led the people of Eneti or Veneti from Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia

Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus....
 to Italy. The city exhumed a large stone sarcophagus in the year 1274 and declared these to represent Antenor's relics.

Patavium, as Padua was known by the Romans
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, was inhabited by (Adriatic) Veneti
Adriatic Veneti

The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto. They spoke Venetic language, an independent Indo-European language, which is attested in approximately 300 short inscriptions dating from 6th to 1st centuries BC....
. They were reputed for their excellent breed of horses and the wool of their sheep. Its men fought for the Romans at Cannae
Cannae

Cannae is an ancient village of the Apulia region of south east Italy. It is a frazione of the comune of Barletta....
. The city was a Roman municipium
Municipium

A municipium belonged to the second highest Social class of Ancient Rome cities, being inferior in status to the colonia . The first municipium was Tusculum....
 since 45 BC (os 43. It became so powerful that it was reportedly able to raise two hundred thousand fighting men. Abano
Abano

Abano may refer to:*Pietro d'Abano*Abano, Georgia*Abano Terme*Abano Healthcare Group...
, which is nearby, is the birthplace of the reputed historian Livy
Livy

Titus Livius , known as Livy in English language, was a Ancient Rome historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time....
. Padua was also the birthplace of Valerius Flaccus
Gaius Valerius Flaccus

Gaius Valerius Flaccus was a Roman Empire poet who flourished in the "Silver Age of Latin literature" under the emperors Vespasian and Titus and wrote a Latin Argonautica that owes a great deal to Apollonius of Rhodes' more famous epic....
, Asconius Pedianus
Asconius Pedianus

Quintus Asconius Pedianus , Roman grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium .In his later years he resided in Rome, and there he died, after having been blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five....
 and Thrasea Paetus.

The area is said to have been Christianized by Saint Prosdocimus. He is venerated as the first bishop of the city.

Late Antiquity

The history of Padua after Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under...
 follows the course of events common to most cities of north-eastern Italy.

Padua, in common with north-eastern Italy, suffered severely from the invasion of the Huns under Attila (452). It then passed under the Gothic
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
 kings Odoacer
Odoacer

Odoacer , also known as Odovacar , was a Germanic general and the first non-Roman King of Italy after 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in AD 480, as a client of the Eastern Roman Emperor....
 and Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great

File:Theodoric bronze weight inlaid with silver issued by prefect Catulinus Rome 493 526.jpg'Theodoric the Great' , known in Latin as 'Flavius Theodericus' and in Greek sources, was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , and regent of the Visigoths ....
. However during the Gothic War
Gothic War (535–552)

See Gothic War for the war on the Danube.The Gothic War was a war fought in Italian Peninsula and the adjoining regions of Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica from 535 until 554 between the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire and the forces of the Ostrogothic Kingdom....
 it submitted to the Greek
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
s in 540. The city was seized again by the Goths under Totila
Totila

Totila was king of the Ostrogoths from 541 until his death. He waged the Gothic War against the Byzantine Empire for the mastery of Italy. Most of the historical evidence for Totila consists of chronicles by the Byzantine historian Procopius, who accompanied the Byzantine general Belisarius during the Gothic War....
, but was restored to the Eastern Empire by Narses
Narses

Narses was, with Belisarius, one of the great generals in the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I during the so-called "Reconquest" that took place during Justinian's reign....
 in 568.

It then fell under the control of the Lombards
Lombards

The Lombards were a Germanic peoples originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italian peninsula in 568 under the leadership of Alboin....
. In 601, the city rose in revolt, against Agilulf
Agilulf

Agilulf, called the Thuringian, was the duke of Turin and king of the Lombards in Italy, the cousin of his predecessor Authari. Son of the Duke Ansvald of Turin, he was raised on the shield by the warriors in Milan in May 591, on the advice, sought by the Lombard council, of the Catholic queen Theodelinda, whom he soon married himself....
, the Lombard king. After suffering a long (12 years) and bloody siege, it was stormed and burned by him. The Padua of Antiquity was annihilated: the remains of an amphitheater (the Arena) and some bridge foundations are all that remain of Roman Padua today. The townspeople fled to the hills and returned to eke out a living among the ruins; the ruling class abandoned the city for Laguna, according to a chronicle. The city did not easily recover from this blow, and Padua was still weak when the Franks
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
 succeeded the Lombards as masters of northern Italy.

Frankish and episcopal supremacy

At the Diet of Aix-la-Chapelle (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.

During the period of episcopal
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
 supremacy over the cities of northern Italy, Padua does not appear to have been either very important or very active. The general tendency of its policy throughout the war of investitures was Imperial and not Roman; and its bishops were, for the most part, Germans.

The main event of the High Middle Ages was the sack of the city by the Magyar
Hungarian people

Hungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Magyars in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium....
s in 899. It was many years before Padua recovered from this ravage.

Emergence of the commune

Under the surface, several important movements were taking place that were to prove formative for the later development of Padua.

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

During the next century they were engaged in wars with Venice and Vicenza for the right of water-way on the Bacchiglione and the Brenta. This meant that the city grew in power and self-reliance.

The great families of Camposampiero
Camposampiero

Camposampiero is a town in the province of Padua, Veneto, northern Italy....
, Este
Este

The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf, the younger, as the House of Fulc-Este or later simply as the House of 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
Podestà

Podest? is the name given to certain high officials in many Italy cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor....
. Their choice first fell on one of the Este family.

A fire devastated Padua in 1174. This required the virtual rebuilding of the city.
Kathedrale Und Baptisterium
The temporary success of the Lombard League
Lombard League

The Lombard League was an alliance formed around 1167, which at its apex included most of the cities of northern Italy , including, among others, Milan, Piacenza, Cremona, Mantua, Crema, Italy, Bergamo, Brescia, Bologna, Padua, Treviso, Vicenza, Venice, Verona, Lodi, Italy, and Parma, and even some lords, such as the Marquis Malaspina and E...
 helped to strengthen the towns. However their civic jealousy soon reduced them to weakness again. As a result, in 1236 Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II , of the House of Hohenstaufen dynasty, was an Kingdom of Italy pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215....
 found little difficulty in establishing his tyrannical vicar Ezzelino da Romano
Ezzelino da Romano

Ezzelino da Romano was the name of various seignors of fiefs and cities in northern Italy starting from the 12th century AD.*The family was founded by Ecelo , who received the fiefs of Romano, including Romano d'Ezzelino and Onara, near Cittadella, Veneto...
 in Padua and the neighbouring cities, where he practised frightful cruelties on the inhabitants. Ezzelino was unseated in June 1256 without civilian bloodshed, thanks to Pope Alexander IV
Pope Alexander IV

Pope Alexander IV was Pope from 1254 until his death.Born as Rinaldo di Jenne, a native of Jenne, Italy, near Anagni, he was, on his mother's side, a member of the de' Conti di Segni family, the counts of Segni, like Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX ....
.

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
University of Padua

The University of Padua , located in Padua, Italy, was founded in 1222. It is among the earliest of the university and the third oldest in Italy....
 (the third in Italy) was founded in 1222, and it flourished in the 1200s.

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

Jacopo da Carrara
Jacopo da Carrara

Jacopo or Giacomo da Carrara may refer to:*Jacopino da Carrara*Jacopo I da Carrara, , called the Great, founder Carraresi dynasty that ruled Padua from 1318 to 1405...
 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
John Hawkwood

Sir John Hawkwood was an England mercenary or condottieri in 14th century Italy. The French chronicler Jean Froissart knew him as Haccoude and Italians as Giovanni Acuto....
 won the Battle of Castagnaro
Battle of Castagnaro

The Battle of Castagnaro was fought on march 11, 1387 at Castagnaro between Verona and Padua. It one of the most famous battles of the Italian condottieri age....
 for Padova, against Giovanni Ordelaffi
Giovanni Ordelaffi

Giovanni Ordelaffi was a member of the noble family of Ordelaffi, the Lords of Forl?, in Italy, in the 14th and in the 15th centuries.Born in Forl?, he was a famous condottiero....
, for Verona
Verona

Verona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheatre built by the Romans....
.

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 10 December 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
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I of Habsburg was Holy Roman Empire from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his reign, from circa 1483....
 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. (Siege of Padua (1509)). The city was governed by two Venetian nobles, a podestà for civil and a captain for military affairs. Each was elected for sixteen 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
Nuncio

Nuncio is an Ecclesiology diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word, Nuntius, meaning "envoy." This article addresses this title as well as derived similar titles, all within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church....
 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.
Sebastiansemitecolo
Santa Sofia Padova Apse

Austrian rule

In 1797 the Venetian Republic was wiped off the map by the Treaty of Campo Formio
Treaty of Campo Formio

The Treaty of Campo Formio or Peace of Campo Formio was signed on October 17, 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Ludwig von Cobenzl as representatives of France and Austria....
, 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
Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia

The Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was a kingdom in northern Italy, and part of the Austrian Empire. It was established after the defeat of Napoleon, according to the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, on 9 June 1815....
.

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
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
 were annexed to the recently united Kingdom of Italy.

Italian rule

Annexed to Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 during 1866, Padua was at the centre of the poorest area of Northern Italy
Northern Italy

Northern Italy comprises two areas belonging to Italian NUTS level 1 regions:*North-West : Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria;*North-East : Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/S?dtirol, Emilia-Romagna....
, as Veneto
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
 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.

The 20th century

When Italy entered the Great War on 24th May 1915, Padua was chosen as the main command of the Italian Army
Italian Army

The Italian Army is the ground defense force of the Military of Italy. On July 29, 2004 it became a professional all-volunteer force of 112,000 active duty personnel....
. 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 now 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
Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele d'Annunzio was an Italy poet, journalist, novelist, dramatist, and daredevil who went on to have a controversial role in politics as an influence on the Italian Fascist movement and the alleged forerunner of Benito Mussolini....
's flight to Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
 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
Vittorio Veneto

Vittorio Veneto is a city situated in the Province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, Italy, in the Cardinal direction of the Italian Peninsula, between the Piave and the Livenza rivers....
 (exactly a year after Caporetto), and the Austrian forces collapsed. The armistice was signed in Padua, at Villa Giusti, on 3rd November 1918, with Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Kaiserlich und k?niglich Monarchy was a state in Central Europe ruled by the House of Habsburg, constitutionally a personal union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of 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.

As in many other areas in Italy and abroad, Padua experienced great social turmoil in the years immediately following the Great War. The city was swept by strikes and clashes, factories and fields were subject to occupation, and war veterans struggled to re-enter civilian life. Many supported a new political way: Fascism
Fascism

Fascism is a Political radicalism, Authoritarianism Nationalism ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or Race ....
. As in other parts of Italy, the fascist party in Padua soon came to be seen as the defender of property and order against revolution. The city was also the site of one of the largest fascist mass rallies, with some 300,000 people reportedly attending one Mussolini speech.

New buildings, in typical fascist architecture
Fascist architecture

Rationalist-Fascist architecture was an Italian architectural style of the late 1920's promoted and practiced initially by the Gruppo 7 group, whose architects included Figini e Pollini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco, Figini e Pollini, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni, Ubaldo Castagnola and Adalberto Libera....
, 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 Second World War on 8th September 1943, Padua became part of the Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic

The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini....
, 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 very 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 28th April 1945. A small Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 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.

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
    Giotto

    Giotto may refer to:* Giotto di Bondone an Italian painter.* Giotto mission, an European Space Agency space mission for the observation of Comet Halley...
    . It was Commissioned by Enrico degli Scrovegni
    Enrico degli Scrovegni

    Enrico degli Scrovegni was a Padua nobleman who lived in the early 1300s around the time of Giotto and Dante. He was the son of Reginaldo 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
    Palazzo della Ragione

    The Palazzo della Ragione is a Renaissance town hall building in Padua, in the Veneto region of ItalyThe building, 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 81.5m, its breadth 27m, and its height 24 m; the walls are covered w...
    , 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
    Allegory

    Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting, sculpture or some other form of Mimesis, or representative art....
     fresco
    Fresco

    Fresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins....
    es; the building stands upon arches, and the upper storey is surrounded by an open loggia, not unlike that which surrounds the basilica of Vicenza
    Vicenza

    Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province of Vicenza in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione....
    . 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
    Giovanni Maria Falconetto

    Giovanni Maria Falconetto was an Italians architect and artist. He designed the first fully Renaissance building in Padua, the Loggia Cornaro, a garden loggia for Alvise Cornaro built as a Doric order arcade....
    , the Veronese architect-sculptor who introduced Renaissance architecture
    Italian Renaissance

    The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
     to Padua and who completed the door in 1532. Falconetto was the architect of Alvise Cornaro
    Alvise Cornaro

    Alvise Cornaro was an italians patron of arts, also remembered for his four books of Discorsi about the secrets to living long and well with measure and sobriety....
    's garden loggia, (Loggia Cornaro), the first fully Renaissance building in Padua . Nearby, the Cathedral, remodelled in 1552 after a design of Michelangelo
    Michelangelo

    Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
    . It contains works by Nicolò Semitecolo, Francesco Bassano
    Francesco Bassano

    Two Italy painters, grandfather and grandson, are named Francesco Bassano:* Francesco Bassano the Elder .* Francesco Bassano the Younger ....
     and Giorgio Schiavone. The nearby Baptistry, consecrated in 1281, houses the most important frescoes cycle by Giusto de' Menabuoi
    Giusto de' Menabuoi

    Giusto de' Menabuoi was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance. He was born in Florence.In Lombardy he executed a fresco of the Last Judgement in the Abbey of Viboldone, Milan....
    .


  • 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
    Jacopo Sansovino

    Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino , was an Italy sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity....
     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
    Nicola Pisano

    Nicola Pisano was an Italy sculpture whose work is noted for its classical Ancient Rome sculptural style. Pisano is sometimes considered to be the founder of modern sculpture....
    . It is covered by seven cupolas, two of them pyramidal. There are also four beautiful cloisters to visit. Sant'Antonio is treated as Vatican
    Vatican City

    Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
     territory.


  • Donatello
    Donatello

    Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
    's magnificent equestrian statue of the Venetian general Gattamelata (Erasmo da Narni
    Erasmo of Narni

    Erasmo of Narni , better known as "Gattamelata", was among the most famous of the condottieri or mercenary in the Italian Renaissance....
    ) 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
    Equestrian sculpture

    An equestrian statue is a statue of a horse-mounted rider. The term is from the Latin "eques," meaning "knight". A statue of an unmounted horse is strictly an "equine statue"....
     bronze cast since antiquity. It was inspired by the Marcus Aurelius
    Marcus Aurelius

    Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important stoicism philosophy....
     equestrian sculpture
    Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

    The Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is an ancient Rome statue in the Campidoglio, Rome, Italy. It is made of bronze and stands 3.5 m tall....
     at the Capitoline Hill
    Capitoline Hill

    The Capitoline Hill , between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in the Romanesco....
     in Rome
    Rome

    Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
    .


  • Not far from the Gattamelata statue are the St. George Oratory (13th century), with frescoes by Altichiero
    Altichiero

    Altichiero da Verona was an Italy Painting of the Gothic art. A follower of Giotto di Bondone, Altichiero is credited with founding the Veronese school....
    , and the Scuola di S. Antonio (16th century), with frescoes by Tiziano (Titian
    Titian

    File:Tizian 090.jpg Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venice school of the Italian Renaissance....
    ).


  • One of the best known symbols of Padua is the Prato della Valle
    Prato della Valle

    Prato della Valle is a 1 E4 m? elliptical square in Padova, Italy. It is the largest square in Italy, and List of city squares by size in Europe....
    , 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
    Paolo Veronese

    Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi....
    . The complex was founded in the 5th century on the tomb of the namesake saint, Justine of Padua.


  • The Church of the Eremitani
    Church of the Eremitani

    The Church of the Eremitani , or Church of the Hermits, is an Augustinian church of the 13th century in Padua, northern Italy.It was built in 1276 and dedicated to the saints Philip the Apostle and James the Just; it is however best known as degli Eremitani from the annexed old monastery, which now houses the municipal art galle...
     is an Augustinian church of the 13th century, containing the tombs of Jacopo (1324) and Ubertinello
    Ubertinello

    Ubertino I da Carrara , called Novello and better known as Ubertinello, was the Lord of Padua from 1338 until his death....
     (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
    World War II

    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
    , 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
    Vincenzo Scamozzi

    Vincenzo Scamozzi was an Republic of Venice architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Venice area in the second half of the 16th century....
    , on an unusual octagonal plan. The interior, decorated with polychrome marbles, houses a precious Madonna and Child by Andrea Briosco
    Andrea Briosco

    Andrea Riccio was an Italian sculptor and occasional architect, whose real name was Andrea Briosco, but is usually known by his soubriquet meaning "curly"; he is also known as Il Riccio and Andrea Crispus ....
    , 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
    Giuseppe Jappelli

    Giuseppe Jappelli was an Italy Neoclassical architecture architect and engineer who was born and died in Venice. He studied at the Clementine Academy in Bologna....
     in neoclassical style
    Neoclassical architecture

    Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Baroque architecture....
     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.


  • The Ponte San Lorenzo
    Ponte San Lorenzo

    The Ponte San Lorenzo is a Roman segmental arch bridge over the river Bacchiglione in Padua, Italy, Constructed between 47 and 30 BC, it is one of the very earliest segmental arched bridges in the world....
    , a Roman bridge
    Roman bridge

    Roman bridges, built by Ancient Rome, were the first large and lasting bridges built.Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as its basic structure....
     largely underground, along with the ancient Ponte Corbo, Ponte Altinate and Ponte S. Matteo


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

    Villa Molin is a patrician residence at Mandria, in Ponte della Cagna, south of Padua, Italy, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed for Nicol? Molin, a Venice noble, by Vincenzo Scamozzi and completed in 1597....
    , in the Mandria fraction, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi
    Vincenzo Scamozzi

    Vincenzo Scamozzi was an Republic of Venice architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Venice area in the second half of the 16th century....
     in 1597.
  • Villa Mandiriola, (17th century), at Albignasego
    Albignasego

    Albignasego is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italy region Veneto, located about 35 km west of Venice and about 7 km south of Padua....
  • Villa Pacchierotti-Trieste (17th century), at Limena
  • Villa Cittadella-Vigodarzere (19th century), at Saonara
  • Villa Selvatico da Porto (15th-18th century), at Vigonza
    Vigonza

    Vigonza is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italy region Veneto, located about 25 km west of Venice and about 10 km northeast of Padua....
  • Villa Loredan, at Sant'Urbano.
  • Villa Contarini
    Villa Contarini

    File:Villa Contarini 4.jpgVilla Contarini is a patricianship villa veneta in Piazzola sul Brenta, province of Padova, northern Italy. The villa is in Baroque style and is backed by a 50 ha park with lakes and alleys....
    , at Piazzola sul Brenta, built in 1546 by Palladio and enlarged in the following centuries, is the most important.


Culture


Padua has long been famous for its university
University of Padua

The University of Padua , located in Padua, Italy, was founded in 1222. It is among the earliest of the university and the third oldest in Italy....
, 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
Pietro Bembo

Pietro Bembo was a Republic of Venice scholar, poet, literary theory, and Catholic Cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch....
, Sperone Speroni
Sperone Speroni

Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti was an Italy Renaissance Humanism, scholar, and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy, Accademia degli Infiammati, and wrote on both moral and literary matters....
, the anatomist Vesalius
Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius was an Anatomy, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica . Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy....
, Copernicus, Fallopius, Fabrizio d'Acquapendente, Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was a Grand Duchy of Tuscany physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution....
, Pietro Pomponazzi
Pietro Pomponazzi

Pietro Pomponazzi was an Italy philosopher. He is sometimes known by his Latin language name, Petrus Pomponatius.Pomponazzi was born in Mantua and began his education there....
, Reginald, later Cardinal Pole, Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a France religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome history to include Persian Empire, Babylonia , Jewish history and History of ancient Egypt....
, Tasso
Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso was an Italy poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem ....
 and Sobieski
Sobieski

Sobieski * Sobieski family, or House of Sobieski a notable family of Polish nobility, whose members included:** Marek Sobieski , voivode of Lublin, father of Jakub Sobieski...
. The university hosts the oldest anatomy theatre
Anatomical theatre

An anatomical theatre was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities.The theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatre shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place....
 (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
Donatello

Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
; and for native art there was the school of Francesco Squarcione
Francesco Squarcione

Francesco Squarcione was a Padua artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna , Cosimo Tura and Carlo Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child and an altarpiece ....
, whence issued the great Mantegna.

Padua is also the birth place of the famous architect Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio , was a Republic of Venice architect, widely considered the most influential architect in the Architectural history. He was influenced by Roman and Greek architecture....
, 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
Giovanni Battista Belzoni

Giovanni Battista Belzoni; sometimes known as The Great Belzoni was a prolific Republic of Venice exploration of Egyptian antiquities....
, adventure-man, engineer and egyptologist.

The famous sculptor Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova was a Republic of Venice sculpture who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nudity flesh. The epitome of the neoclassicism style, his work marked a return to Classicism refinement after the theatrical excesses of Baroque sculpture....
 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) is collecting links to whatever is available on the web; (2) a student association created in the college is still operating and connecting Alumni.

Demographics


In 2007, there were 210,301 people residing in Padua, located in the province of Padua, Veneto
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
, 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
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 as a whole grew by 3.85 percent. 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
Italian people

The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group located primarily in Italy and, by virtue of a wide-ranging Italian diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia....
. The largest immigrant group comes from other Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an nations (the largest being Romanians
Romanians

], 26 Nov 2004. Reprinted at , retrieved 18 Dec 2005.External links *...
, Moldovans
Moldovans

Moldovans or Moldavians are the native population of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, which nowadays corresponds to 8 north-eastern counties of Romania , the Republic of Moldova, and small parts of Ukraine ....
, and Albanians
Albanians

The Albanian people , from southeast Europe, live in Albania and neighbouring countries and speak the Albanian language. About half of Albanians live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro....
): 5.14%, sub-saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara....
 1.08%, and East Asia
East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central 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
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
 and Hindu followers.

Consulates

In Padua are located the consulates of: Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, Croatia
Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
, Ivory Coast, Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and Uruguay
Uruguay

Uruguay is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area....
. The South Korea
South Korea

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea , ), often referred to as Korea and the "names of Korea#Revival of the names", is a Semi-presidential system republic in East Asia, located in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula....
n consulate is to be opened soon.

Economy

The industrial area of Padova was created in 1946, in the eastern part of the city; now it is one of the biggest industrial zones in Europe, having an area of 11 million sqm. Here there are the main offices of 1300 industries employing 50,000 people. From each part of Europe goods arrive in Padua, where they are send all over the world, especially to Asia. In the industrial zone there are two train stations, one fluvial port, three truck terminals, two highway exits and a lot of connected services, hotels, post offices and directional centres.

Transport


By car

By car, there are 3 motorways (autostrade in Italian): A4 Brescia-Padova, connecting it to Verona (then to Brenner Pass
Brenner Pass

Brenner Pass is a mountain pass through the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria, and is one of the principal passes of the Alps. It is the lowest and easiest of the Alpine passes, and one of the few in the area....
, Innsbruck
Innsbruck

Innsbruck is the Capital of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn River Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some 30 km south of Innsbruck....
 and Bavaria
Bavaria

Bavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is a region located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest States of Germany of Germany by area....
) and Milan
Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
 (then Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, Turin
Turín

Tur?n is a municipality in the Ahuachap?n Department Departments of El Salvador of El Salvador....
 and France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
); A4 Padova-Venezia, to Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 then Belluno
Belluno

Belluno is a town in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about 80 kilometers north of Venice, Belluno is the Capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Dolomiti's region....
 (for Dolomites
Dolomites

The Dolomites are a section of the Alps. They are located for the most part in the province of Province of Belluno, the rest in the provinces of Province of Bolzano-Bozen and Province of Trento ....
 holiday resorts like Cortina
Cortina

Cortina may refer to:* Cortina d'Ampezzo, a town in northern Italy* Cortina sulla strada del vino, a town in northern Italy* Ford Cortina, a medium-sized family car built by Ford of Britain from 1962 to 1982...
) Trieste
Trieste

Trieste is a city and port in northeastern Italy very near to the Slovenian border, to the North, East, and South. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea....
 and Tarvisio
Tarvisio

Tarvisio is a town in Italy located in the northeastern part of the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the province of Udine, in the Val Canale, at the border of both Austria and Slovenia....
 (for Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, Slovenia
Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
, Croatia
Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
 and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
); A13 Bologna-Padova, to Ferrara
Ferrara

Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara.It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north....
 and Bologna
Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
 (then Central
Central Italy

Central Italy is a geographic area in Italy that encompasses four of the Regions of Italy:*Lazio*Marches*Tuscany*Umbria...
 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
Tangenziale di Padova

The GRAP is the orbital motorway surrounding Padua. It is also called Tangenziale di Padova.Usually, it consists of 2 lanes more 1 emergency lane for a dual carriageways....
 with more than 20 exit surrounds the city, connecting districts and the small towns of the hinterland.

By train

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; one can reach Milan in 1h and 51 min and Venice in 20 min.

By plane

Padua is relatively close to airports at Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
, Verona
Verona

Verona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheatre built by the Romans....
, Treviso
Treviso

Treviso is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of Treviso province and the municipality has 81,627 inhabitants : some 3.000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city hinterland has a population of approximately 170,000....
 and Bologna
Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
. 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
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
, approximately 50 km away, is the nearest seaport.

Public transport

Urban public transport includes public bus
Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. A bus can generally seat a maximum of anywhere from 8 to 200 passengers; many more passengers than a minivan....
es together with a new Translohr
Translohr

Translohr is a guided bus system manufactured by Lohr Industrie of France. It is used in Clermont-Ferrand, Tianjin and Padua, Italy; it is under construction in L'Aquila, in the mainland Mestre district of Venice in Italy and Medell?n in Colombia ...
 guided busway (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
Taxicab

A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of public transport for a single passenger, or small group of passengers, typically for a non-shared ride....
. 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 year 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.

Sport

Padua is the home of Calcio Padova
Calcio Padova

Calcio Padova is an Italy football club, based in Padua, Veneto. The club was founded in 1910. Padova currently plays in Lega Pro Prima Divisione , having last been in Serie A in 1996....
, a football
Football

File:Football4.pngFootball is the word given to a number of similar team sports, all of which involve kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a Goal ....
 team that plays in Italy's Prima (First) Divisione (Serie C1 until 2008), and who played 16 Serie A
Serie A

Serie A is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top echelon of the Italian football league system. It is widely regarded as one of the elite leagues of the footballing world....
 championships (last 2 in 1995 and 1996, but the previous 14 between 1929 and 1962); the Petrarca Padova
Petrarca Padova

Petrarca Padova Rugby is an Italy rugby union club currently competing in Super 10 . They are based in Padua in Veneto. They were founded in 1947 by Pine Bonaiti, Lalo Santini, Gastone Munaron near the University College Antonianum....
 rugby union
Rugby union

Rugby union is a competitive outdoor contact sport, played with an oval ball, by two teams of 15 players. It is one of the two main codes of rugby football, the other being rugby league....
 team, winner of 11 national championships (all between 1970 and 1987) and 2 national cups, and now plays in the Super10 league; and a volleyball
Volleyball

Volleyball is an Olympic Games team sport in which two teams of 6 active players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules....
 club, once called Petrarca Padova too, which plays in the Italian first division, and who won a CEV cup
CEV Cup

The CEV Cup is an official competition for men's Volleyball clubs of Europe and takes place every year....
 in 1994. Basketball
Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet  high hoop under organized rules....
, cycling
Cycling

Cycling is the use of bicycles, or - less commonly - unicycles, tricycles, Quadracycle s and other similar wheeled human powered vehicles as a means of transport, a form of recreation or a sport....
 (Padua has been for several years home of the famous Giro del Veneto
Giro del Veneto

The Giro del Veneto is a classic cycle races European Road bicycle racing held in the region of Veneto, Italy. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour....
), rowing
Rowing

Rowing may refer to:* Watercraft rowing, rowing as a form of propulsion* Rowing , competitive rowing** Coastal and ocean rowing, rowing performed on the sea...
 (two teams among the best ones in Italy, Canottieri Padova and Padova Canottaggio), horseback-riding and swimming
Swimming

Swimming is the movement by humans or animals through water, usually without artificial assistance. Swimming is an activity that can be both useful and recreational....
 are popular sports too.

The venues of these teams are: Stadio Euganeo
Stadio Euganeo

Stadio Euganeo is a football stadium in Padua, Italy. Since 1994 it is the home of Calcio Padova which now plays in Serie C. It has a total capacity of 32,336....
 for football and athletic, about 32,000 seats; Stadio Plebiscito
Stadio Plebiscito

Stadio Plebiscito is a multi-use stadium in Padova, Italy. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches and the home of Petrarca Padova. The stadium holds 9,500 people....
 for rugby union, about 9,000 seats; Palazzetto dello Sport San Lazzaro for volleyball and basketball, about 5,000 seats, and will be soonly restored; Ippodromo Breda - Le Padovanelle for horse races. The old and glorious Stadio Appiani, which hosted up to 21,000 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
Ice skating

Ice skating is moving on ice by use of ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared Ice rink and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water such as lakes and rivers....
 and maybe hockey
Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
 is to be built; while the construction of a new venue for basketball and volleyball is today dubious.

The F1 racing driver Riccardo Patrese
Riccardo Patrese

Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italy former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to . He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix....
 (vice-champion 1992, 3rd place in 1989 and 1991; holded the world record for having started the most Formula One races, beaten by Rubens Barrichello
Rubens Barrichello

Rubens Gon?alves Barrichello is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. Following the management buy-out of the Honda racing team, with whom Barrichello competed during the 2008 season, he was confirmed for 2009 as one of the drivers in the new Brawn GP team....
 during 2008 season) was born and lives in Padova; the racing driver Alex Zanardi
Alex Zanardi

Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi is an italian people racing driver. He won two Champ Car championship titles in North America during the late 1990s. He also had a less successful career as a Formula One driver....
 lives in Padova too. The Bergamasco
Bergamasco

The Bergamasco is a dog breed of dog with its origins in the Italy Alps, where it was originally used as a herding dog....
 brothers were also born in Padova, as well as Bortolami
Bortolami

Bortolami is an Italian surname, which may refer to:*Gianluca Bortolami , Italian road cyclist*Marco Bortolami , Italian rugby player...
, Marcato
Marcato

Marcato is a bowing technique for playing a stringed instrument, such as violin, viola, cello, and the double bass, or the voice. Using the Bow , one begins each note with a new attack, rather than slurring, which is a continuous motion of the bow from one note to the next....
 and Ghiraldini, of the Italian Rugby national team. All them started their careers in Petrarca Padova
Petrarca Padova

Petrarca Padova Rugby is an Italy rugby union club currently competing in Super 10 . They are based in Padua in Veneto. They were founded in 1947 by Pine Bonaiti, Lalo Santini, Gastone Munaron near the University College Antonianum....
. Famous footballers from Padua were Francesco Toldo
Francesco Toldo

Francesco Toldo is an Italy Association football Goalkeeper , who currently plays for F.C. Internazionale Milano....
, who was born here, and Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero

Alessandro Del Piero, Italian orders of merit is an Italians FIFA World Cup-winning Association football. He currently plays for Juventus F.C....
, who started his professional career in the Calcio Padova
Calcio Padova

Calcio Padova is an Italy football club, based in Padua, Veneto. The club was founded in 1910. Padova currently plays in Lega Pro Prima Divisione , having last been in Serie A in 1996....
.

Sister cities

  • Nancy
    Nancy

    Nancy is a city in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departments of France in northeastern France.The city is the capital of the department. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper ....
    , France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
    , since 1964
  • Freiburg
    Freiburg

    Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany, in the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest. It straddles the Dreisam river, on the foothills of the Schlossberg....
    , Germany
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
    , since 1967
  • Boston
    Boston, Massachusetts

    Boston is the State capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region, and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England." Boston city proper had a 2007 est...
    , USA, since 1983
  • Handan
    Handan

    Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwestern part of Hebei Province of China....
    , China
    People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
    , since 1988
  • Iasi
    Iasi

    Iasi , is a Cities in Romania and Municipality in Romania in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of Principality of Moldavia from the 16th century until 1861 and of Romania between 1916?1918 during World War I....
    , Romania
    Romania

    Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
    , since 1995
  • Beria
    Beira, Mozambique

    Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean....
    , Mozambique
    Mozambique

    Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest....
    , since 1995
  • Coimbra
    Coimbra

    Coimbra is a city and municipalities of Portugal in Portugal. It served as the country's capital during the First Dynasty and remains home to the University of Coimbra, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world and List of oldest universities in continuous operation....
    , Portugal
    Portugal

    Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
    , since 1998
  • Cagliari
    Cagliari

    Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means the castle. It has about 160,000 inhabitants, or about 500,000 including the suburbs : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu Sant'Elena....
    , Italy
    Italy

    Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
    , since 2002
  • Zadar
    Zadar

    Zadar is a List of cities in Croatia in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pa?man, from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait....
    , Croatia
    Croatia

    Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
    , since 2003


See also

  • Via Anelli Wall
    Via Anelli Wall

    The Via Anelli Wall is a three metre high wall built of steel with a length of eighty four metres, which encircles the Via Anelli quarter of Padua, northern Italy....
  • Tangenziale di Padova
    Tangenziale di Padova

    The GRAP is the orbital motorway surrounding Padua. It is also called Tangenziale di Padova.Usually, it consists of 2 lanes more 1 emergency lane for a dual carriageways....


External links