Tour dedicated to two monuments of Padua “Urbs Picta” now a Unesco World Heritage Site: the Eremitani Church and the Scrovegni Chapel.
The Eremitani Church is a monument in the path of Padua Urbs Picta for its exceptional wealth of works of art from the 13th century. It is a typical example of a building of the Augustinian order, a single large hall also called “a granary” suitable for preaching. The church, begun in 1267, is characterized by a majestic wooden ceiling with an inverted hull, which also serves as a sound box for the incredible acoustics in diffusing the sounds at best; for this reason, it is also considered the church of sacred music concerts in Padua (often those held by the Venetian Soloists). From the architectural point of view, it is one of the greatest examples of pure Romanesque in Northern Italy. Dedicated to the Hermitages of Sant’Agostino, a mendicant order born in the mid-100s, the church was home to the "Fraglia" dei fornai” in the Middle Ages.
Inside, with a single nave, there are the only two surviving graves of the Lords of Padua, the Carraresi (Jacopo da Carrara and Ubertino da Carrara graves) admirable masterpieces of the sculptural art of the 13th century by Andriolo de Santi. The church is universally known for the frescoes by Andrea Mantegna located in the Ovetari Chapel, the first example of Renaissance art in northern Italy. Worthy of note are the fourteenth-century frescoes by Giotto’s students: Guariento Arpo and Giusto de Menabuoi and the fourteenth-century Cross by Nicolò Semitecolo on the High Altar.
The art of the fourteenth century in Padua continues to amaze even in some rooms of the Eremitani Civic Museums, which are set up to complete two cycles of frescoes UNESCO heritage: Giotto’s Cross, originally located in the Scrovegni Chapel, and the Angels by the painter Guariento d’Arpo. In a special space of the museum hall, you will not fail to be surprised by the magnificent Angels of Guariento, which have been restored to recreate the original setting of a small private chapel that the Carraresi family (in the fourteenth century they represented the Lords of Padua besides being Guariento’s clients), had set up inside their splendid Palace, located in the area of Piazza Capitaniato.
Visit to the Scrovegni Chapel, the “Sistine Chapel of Padua”, one of the greatest masterpieces of Giotto’s art. The guide will show you the marvellous pictorial cycle of the great Florentine Master, Giotto di Bondone, his marvellous and unique “Nativity”, his colours imbued with light that are magic charm and pure poetry, his perspective technique, the mimics of his animated and emotional characters, the stars in the blue lapis lazuli of the sky!
