Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

Padova is my city, so my judgement is surely cloud by pride and attachment. However, I think that Padova is the Italian city where it's the most worth visiting the inside of buildings. If you just walk through the historical center you will find a charming and historical centre, but it won't be that much different from other former Venetian cities. Visiting churches and palaces, with their frescoes, is the real deal to see the beauty of Padova. In this sense, this WHS is a huge help to assist a tourist that wants to see the main frescoes landmarks. After some years from WHS declaration, I had the chance to visit all (expect one) sites in the city and I found overall good organization and easy access (which I was surprised about, especially for lesser sites). Padova also hosts another WHS (The Orto Botanico), and I think that there might be room for a third (something about the "Science City", with Anatomical Theatre, Specola Tower, Galileo's rooms, Il Bo), since these landmarks are thematically separated from each other: a "historical center" WHS wouldn't work.

As others wrote in this review's section, if Padova were in another country it would be a top touristic destination, something like Krakow. 

What can be written of one of the most wonderful art WHS in the world? Giotto's magnum opus. The paintings are of the highest quality...luminous, serene, emotive...fantastic! For lovers of 13th/14th century Italian proto-Renaissance art, this chapel is a must see. 

Limited to small groups and short visits (15 minutes). Early morning, midweek visits preferable as they give best chance of securing on line tickets. Arrive prior to your scheduled visit time by about 20 minutes. Orientation video prior to visit.

Visited Padova on a day trip from Venice.

I was really dazzled by the frescoes of Padua. And I went on a Monday. Don't go on a Monday if you can avoid it -- several attractions are closed. But it was the only day that fit into our schedule. Still, we got to go in the Scrovegni Chapel, Saint Anthony, and the Baptistry. Around town, we were able to enjoy the small market at the Prato, peek through the gates of the closed botanical garden, and eat lunch in the shadow of the Palazzo della Ragione. The highlight was certainly the magnificent Scrovegni. I really appreciated the introduction provided by the video you watch just prior to your turn entering the chapel itself. The Scrovegni frescoes are probably only surpassed by the Sistine Chapel and while at the Scrovegni, I liked to imagine Michaelangelo being inspired by this art. Of course the Baptistry was also very impressive -- the details of the biblical scenes coating its walls and ceiling were amazing and the audio commentary describes it all nicely.

We visited as a day trip by train from Verona, and this worked out very well. We even stopped off for a quick walk through Vicenza on the way back to Verona. We had bought our Urbs Picta pass online, and we made use of the fact that it included a tram pass to get across the city. All-in-all, it was a very delightful day and we were extremely pleased that we chose to visit. I …

It is hard to say anything original about the magnificence of these frescoes. This serial site is definitely one of the most impressive of its kind. Visiting all of its components is possible on a single Urbs Picta ticket, which is what I did in June of 2022.

Scrovegni Chapel is the headline item and one place that requires advance planning. You have to book a specific 15-minute time slot to visit when you buy your ticket online (you actually end up with a voucher to be exchanged for the actual ticket at the Musei degli Eremitani). The printed ticket somewhat amusingly declares that unless you are at the entrance at least 5 minutes before your scheduled time, you will not be let in. I was there a good 15 minutes before but told the lady at the door that I would sit outside of the glass entry pavilion instead of being inside. It turned out that I had to sit through the introductory movie prior to getting into the chapel. Once a group that was inside the chapel was exiting and the group inside the pavilion was proceeding to the chapel, the next group would be let into the pavilion to see the movie. I was allowed in with the next group and thus remain confused about whether the time slot on my ticket was for the pavilion entry or the actual chapel entry. In any case, the movie may be high on pathos but is actually not …

Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of the significance of the Scrovegni Chapel or the T-list site of Padua when I visited with my family back in April 2017. We visited the city for the sole purpose of seeing St. Anthony's grave, and I had just barely convinced my family to walk the few hundred meters to the Botanic Garden. Anyhow, the church was really interesting. I will guiltily admit that the paintings that the site is on the T-list for weren't the most memorable thing about the church, but it was interesting seeing the different architectural styles and artistic value, especially in the many side altars. Photography is not permitted, by the way, but apparently someone managed to sneak a nice picture of the whole church anyway. As with everyone else, I do believe in the undeniable OUV of the Scrovegni Chapel, which I hope to visit one day, but I also think that that Padua is a very beautiful and significant city that deserves World Heritage status other than just its lone monuments.

I had already visited Padua several times and I had visited the Scrovegni Chapel some 13 years ago but at the time photography wasn't allowed, so I didn't mind revisiting to take some photos of Padua's WHS and TWHS.

Moreover, I had seen an advert of the late opening hours of the Scrovegni Chapel plus the possibility of staying inside it double the amount of time which is usually allowed. It's no secret that even as a standalone site, the Scrovegni Chapel deserves inscription as a WHS. Conservation efforts have been more or less continuous over the past fifty years. To start with, the entire chapel had suffered from the nearby bombing during World War II. The facade was dangerously out of trim and had to be realigned. Next came the repairs to the old framework of the beamed ceiling, then the devising of a new system for draining off rainwater from the area beneath the chapel. After this came the decision to close off the adjacent Via Giotto to traffic, followed by the replacing of several tie-beams in the nave while the frescoes underwent highly specific inspection and maintenance.

During the 70s, the newly formed interdisciplinary Commission announced that atmospheric pollution constituted a major threat to the frescoes, so monitoring began, using the most up-to-date technology. Results clearly showed that improving the environment had to take priority over restoration. Meanwhile, steps were being taken to verify the static condition of the building, to protect it from seepage …

One of the disadvantages of almost having ‘finished’ Italy - I have 2 out of the 54 WHS left to visit - is that I am missing the regular weekend trips out there to enjoy the historic cities and their art. So although Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel is only up for nomination in 2020, last week I fitted in an easy weekend trip to this self-proclaimed ‘Capital of the 14th century fresco painting’. It even already has a nomination website and an epic title: Padova Urbs Picta (Latin for “painted city”).

I had been to Padua once before, in 2007. Then already I had a booking for the Scrovegni Chapel, but I ran out of time that day and only ‘did’ the WHS Orto Botanico. Now I had some 24 hours to spend in the city and I stayed overnight. Padua is not the most immediately likeable city: it has some prominent examples of fascist architecture, the railway station area is rather scruffy and it takes a long walk from there to get to the historic center – a center that is split into several piazza’s with not much of interest in between.

On my first afternoon I visited 4 out of the 9 proposed locations. I was staying near the Prato del Valle square, from where the Basilica del Santo is the closest location. This is a huge pilgrimage attraction – its interior holds the spectacular tomb of St. Anthony - but I did not manage to find …

There is broad agreement among the reviewers on this website that the Scrovegni Chapel deserves a place on the World Heritage List and I can only emphasize once again the magnificence of these paintings. The Scrovegni Chapel was on the Italian tentative list as a single monument since the late 1990s, but it was never nominated. Recent activities suggest that things now get going: in January 2016, the T-list entry has been extended to include eight additional sites with frescoes from the 14th century, and it was reported that Padua is working on the nomination dossier and a management plan.

The Scrovegni Chapel is still the focus of the nomination: "It represents the most significant monument in the proposed series and the best-preserved fresco painting by Giotto” (cited from the T-list entry). Giotto di Bondone is the most famous artist of the Trecento (i.e. art and architecture of the 14th century in Italy) and an important forerunner of Renaissance. He introduced visual perspective in painting, his frescoes have spatial depth by the use of landscapes and architectural elements in the background, his characters are not static and flat, they show gestures and posture and individuality, Giotto "painted from life". The other sites of this serial nomination show frescoes by Giotto’s lesser-known successors. This website provides detailed information on the nine sites: locations, opening times, descriptions of the artworks and even audioguide tracks.

I visited the Scrovegni Chapel for the first time in 2004, and a weekend in Padua …

The fact that this site is still on the tentative list is really a mortal sin! How can such a magnificent site be left out of the WHS list!!! This is truly Padova's highlight. It is a masterpiece - nothing more to add!

This site deserves to be added to the list. More than what the rest of Italy--Venice, Florence, Rome, the whole lot--can claim, it was this building that kick-started the European Renaissance and thus the modern world as we know it. It is also incredibly beautiful to boot. Along with the Orto Botanico, the Capella degli Ermani really shows that during its height Padova and its university was one of the most important centers of learning in the western world.

Magnificent!

This was the single highlight of my trip around the Veneto, and the finest site I have visited from the tentative list. It could easily make it onto the World Heritage list proper and I really hope it does.

The chapel is famous for its magnificent frescos painted by Giotto. There was something about the amazing misty colours of the interior that really grabbed my attention and held it. The 15 minutes or so we were in this small chapel enabled us to follow the story being depicted on the wall very closely, and gave plenty of time to really absorb the details of the art works, looking at the incredible emotion that Giotto was able to get into the depictions. This chapel is one of the key works of art from a major turning point in the western tradition; it shows the transition from gothic art to the more natural forms associated with the renaissance.

Entry to the chapel is restricted and you will have to book in advance (at least 3 days before but I would recommend booking as early as possible especially if you come in the high season). This limited entry means that a maximum of 25 people are allowed in the chapel at a time, which makes for an exceptionally rewarding way to see the paintings, allowing you time and space to really appreciate them (if only somewhere like the Sistine Chapel could give you the time and space to admire the artworks). Before …

I went to Padua especially to see this marvelous Giotto capella and it was even more striking than I had expected. Giotto was indeed a genious. Padua by the way was heavily bombarded in WWII so many other sites including the nearby Capella degli Eremitani covered with frescoes by Mantegna were damaged. Nonetheless, the huge dining room (the largest in the world), Scuola San Giorgio, San Antonio complex, Prato della Valle, the Univeristy del Po' and the Battistero all offer the art lover great pleasures. Weren't it in Italy I'm sure a town like Padua would become a prominent tourist attraction and a country's main source of pride!