Guided tour of the frescoes of the Eremitani, the Palazzo della Ragione, and the Baptistery, which were included this year in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
An intense itinerary that offers the discovery of Padua, the city of frescoes, which during the 14th century saw the presence of Giotto and numerous artists profoundly influenced by his revolutionary art; painters who created memorable frescoes in the churches, palaces, and oratories of the city governed by the Carrara Princes. Today, due to their extent and quality, these pictorial cycles constitute a unique phenomenon in the entire history of art. For this reason, Padua Urbs Picta is rightly nominated for the World Heritage List by the 2020 Committee. The itinerary unfolds along the streets of Padua in the 14th century. We will visit the Church of the Eremitani where the Giottesque painter Guariento d'Arpo frescoed the walls of the apse with the stories of Saints Philip, James, and Augustine, and the images of the planets and the ages of man, according to the astrological culture of the 14th century. Then we will move to the square area where we will visit another building characterized by the extraordinary roof shaped like an inverted ship's hull, a masterpiece of the supreme ingenuity of Fra' Giovanni degli Eremitani. The Palazzo della Ragione is also called the Salone due to its extensive spatial dimensions. Along the inner walls of the large hanging hall, recognized as the largest medieval hall in Europe, the largest astrological cycle in the world unfolds, painted according to Ptolemaic astronomy with images taken from Pietro D'Abano's Astrolabium Planum. Crossing the lively market squares, we will reach the ancient Baptistery of the Cathedral, which was transformed into a funerary chapel by the Carrara Princes at the end of the 1300s. It was beautifully painted by the great court painter Giusto de’ Menabuoi under the theological supervision of Francesco Petrarca. The whole presents itself as a true Summa Theologica represented in a spectacular manner by this refined Giottesque painter.
