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Central Squares
The area north and west of the university forms the hub of the city. A little way up from the university, on the left, is the Caffè Pedrocchi , which used to be the city’s main intellectual salon; it’s no longer that, but it does have a multiplicity of functions - chic café, concert hall and conference centre. The Piazza della Frutta and Piazza dell’ Erbe , the sites of Padua’s regular markets, are lined by bars, restaurants and shops. Separating them is the extraordinary Palazzo della Ragione or Salone (Tues-Sun: Feb-Oct 9am-7pm; Nov-Jan 9am-6pm; L7000/¬3.62); at the time of its construction in the 1210s, this vast hall was the largest room to have been built on top of another storey. Its decoration would once have been as astounding as its size, but the original frescoes by Giotto and his assistants were destroyed by fire in 1420, though some by Giustio de’Menabuoi have survived; most of the extant frescoes are by Nicola Miretto (1425-40) depicting an astrological calendar distinctively Medieval in its complexity. Mainly used as the city council’s assembly hall, it was also a place where Padua’s citizens could plead for justice - hence the appellation della Ragione , meaning “of reason”. The unmissable wooden horse with disproportionately gigantic gonads is modelled on Donatello’s Gattamelata , and was prefabricated for a joust in 1466 (closed off for restoration work at the time of writing).
Tags: 6pm, 9am, appellation, assembly hall, astrological calendar, complexity, dell, frescoes, gattamelata, giotto, gonads, hub, joust, multiplicity, palazzo della ragione, piazza della frutta, restoration work, salone, sun feb, wooden horse