Around 1305, in a brick chapel built by a usurer's son, Giotto painted figures who embrace, kiss and despair like real people. A few steps away stand Galileo's university and the basilica of a saint so beloved the city simply calls him il Santo. Thirteen stops between the chapel on the Roman arena, the frescoes that changed art, the church that lost Mantegna to the bombs, the café without doors, the anatomy theatre, the great hall with the stone of shame, the clock missing a sign, the baptistery with a sky full of saints, Donatello's bronze horseman, the tomb of Saint Anthony, Altichiero's oratory, the oldest botanical garden in the world and the square of seventy-eight statues. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Padua: la capilla donde Giotto le enseñó a llorar a la pintura
Hacia 1305, en una capilla de ladrillo levantada por el hijo de un usurero, Giotto pintó figuras que se abrazan, se besan y se desesperan como personas de verdad. A pocos pasos, la universidad de Galileo y la basílica de un santo tan querido que la ciudad lo llama simplemente il Santo. Trece paradas entre la capilla sobre la arena romana, los frescos que cambiaron el arte, la iglesia que perdió a Mantegna bajo las bombas, el café sin puertas, el teatro anatómico, el gran salón con la piedra de la vergüenza, el reloj al que le falta un signo, el baptisterio con el cielo lleno de santos, el caballo de bronce de Donatello, la tumba de San Antonio, el oratorio de Altichiero, el jardín botánico más antiguo del mundo y la plaza de las setenta y ocho estatuas. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
13 stops · ~22 min of audio · 2.71 km on foot (~40 min walking) · about 1 h 15 min in total
You are in the Arena gardens. Notice the curved line of the old walls showing through the trees. They are what remains of the amphitheatre of Roman Patavium, the city that was Padua two thousand years ago.
In front of you is a very plain brick building, almost a box. From outside it promises nothing. Inside it holds one of the most important painting cycles in Western history.
In 1300 a banker named Enrico Scrovegni bought this land to build a palace and, beside it, a private chapel. The palace is gone. The chapel survives.
Enrico carried an inherited bad name. His father, Reginaldo, had ma…
2
Giotto Paints People
You are inside. Look up: the vault is a deep blue sky scattered with golden stars. The walls are covered, in bands, with the story of the Virgin and of Christ.
Giotto worked here between 1303 and 1305. The chapel was consecrated on 25 March 1305, the feast of the Annunciation. Almost everything you see is by him and his workshop.
Before him, Italian painting followed the Byzantine model: flat, gilded, solemn figures gazing at the faithful from another world. Giotto gave them weight, volume and space to move in.
Find the Kiss of Judas. Among torches and spears, Judas wraps Jesus in his cloak…
3
The Banker at the Last Judgment
Turn towards the entrance wall. The whole surface is the Last Judgment. In the centre, Christ the judge sits in an oval of light, surrounded by apostles and armies of angels.
On his right, the saved rise in orderly ranks towards heaven. On his left, a river of fire sweeps the damned towards a huge Lucifer who devours them.
Look closely at hell. Among the punished are people hanging from their money bags. In a chapel paid for by a fortune made from lending, the message is no accident.
Now lower your eyes to the bottom, beside the cross. A kneeling man offers the Virgin a model of the chapel.…
4
Mantegna Under the Bombs
You are in front of the Eremitani church, a few steps from the chapel. Notice the brick façade and the great wooden roof. Much of what you see is a reconstruction.
On 11 March 1944, during the Second World War, an Allied air raid aimed at nearby targets hit the church and left it in ruins.
Inside was the Ovetari Chapel. Between 1448 and 1457, a very young painter, Andrea Mantegna, had covered its walls with scenes from the lives of Saint James and Saint Christopher.
Mantegna was about seventeen when he began. He painted flawless Roman architecture and figures seen from below, as if the view…
5
The Café Without Doors
You are in front of Caffè Pedrocchi. Look at the white columns and the stone lions: it looks like a Greek temple, but it is a café. A coffee-maker named Antonio Pedrocchi opened it in 1831.
The architect was Giuseppe Jappelli, who designed rooms in different colours. The most famous is the Green Room. There you could sit and read the paper without having to order anything.
That is why it filled with penniless students. In Padua people still say being in the green to mean being broke, and local tradition links the phrase to this room.
It was called the café without doors, because for decades…
6
Galileo's University
You are in front of Palazzo Bo, the historic seat of the University of Padua. The name comes from an old inn that stood here, with an ox on its sign: bo, in Venetian dialect.
The university was born in 1222, when a group of teachers and students left Bologna in search of greater freedom. It is one of the oldest universities in the world still in operation.
After 1405, when Padua passed to Venice, the republic protected the university. Foreigners and Protestants who were turned away elsewhere could study here.
Between 1592 and 1610 Galileo Galilei taught here. Years later, old and condemned,…
7
The Great Hall and the Stone of Shame
You are between two market squares: Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta. In the middle rises the Palazzo della Ragione, the city's old law court. Look at the roof: it looks like the hull of an upturned ship.
The palace was begun in 1218. The present roof was designed in the early fourteenth century by Friar Giovanni degli Eremitani. Below, under the arcades, food stalls have been trading for centuries.
Upstairs is the Salone, a hall about eighty metres long without a single column. For a long time it was one of the largest unsupported halls in the world.
Its walls had been painted by …
8
The Clock Missing a Sign
You are in Piazza dei Signori. Look at the tower with the great blue and gold dial. It is no ordinary clock: it shows the hours, the phases of the moon and the sun's position in the zodiac.
Padua's first astronomical clock was built by Jacopo Dondi in 1344, for the lords of the city, the Carrara family. The one you see was rebuilt in 1437, following that model.
Count the signs of the zodiac on the dial. There are eleven. Libra, the scales, is missing. No one knows for certain why, and the explanations that circulate are legends.
The Carrara ruled Padua for much of the fourteenth century. Th…
9
A Sky Full of Saints
You are in front of the cathedral baptistery, a square brick building with a dome. Outside it is sober. Inside, every inch of wall and ceiling is painted.
It was decorated by Giusto de' Menabuoi, a Florentine painter, in the 1370s. The commission came from Fina Buzzacarini, wife of Francesco the Elder da Carrara, who wished to be buried here.
Go in and lift your head. At the centre of the dome, Christ gives his blessing from a golden circle. Around him, in concentric rings, hundreds of saints and angels gaze towards him.
The effect is of a heavenly stadium, full to the last seat. The golden…
10
Donatello's Bronze Horseman
You are in the square of the Santo. Before looking at the basilica, look at the bronze rider on the tall pedestal. It is the Gattamelata, by Donatello.
The man on horseback is Erasmo da Narni, a mercenary captain who fought for Venice. He died in 1443. He was known as Gattamelata, and the origin of the nickname is still debated.
Donatello lived in Padua for about ten years and finished the statue in 1453. It was the first great bronze equestrian statue cast in Italy since antiquity.
The model was the Marcus Aurelius in Rome, the emperor on horseback. But here there is no emperor: there is a…
11
The Saint Without a Name
You are in front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Look at the domes and the slender bell towers like minarets. In Padua no one says Saint Anthony: they say il Santo, and everyone knows who they mean.
The odd thing is that he was not from here. He was born in Lisbon around 1195 and named Fernando. He became a Franciscan, took the name Anthony and grew into a famous preacher in Italy and France.
He spent his last period in Padua. He died on 13 June 1231, aged about thirty-six. Less than a year later, in 1232, Pope Gregory IX had already declared him a saint.
That same year work began on this…
12
Altichiero and the Young Titian
You are in front of the Oratory of San Giorgio, beside the Scuola del Santo. They are two modest buildings at the edge of the square. Many people walk past. Do not.
The oratory was built as a funerary chapel by Raimondino Lupi di Soragna, a nobleman related to the Carrara. Between 1379 and 1384 Altichiero da Zevio painted its interior.
Altichiero was one of Giotto's great heirs. His scenes of Saint George, Saint Catherine and Saint Lucy are crowded with people, horses, armour and buildings in perspective.
Look at the faces of the onlookers: they seem to be portraits of the Paduans of his da…
13
The Oldest Garden and the Square of Statues
You are at the entrance to the Orto Botanico. The university founded it in 1545, by decision of the Venetian Senate, so that medical students could learn to recognise healing plants.
It is the oldest university botanical garden in the world still on its original site. Inside, a circular wall surrounds the beds. It was built to stop thieves stealing valuable plants.
Look for the palm tree sheltered in a glass greenhouse. It was planted in 1585. In 1786 Goethe studied it during his Italian journey, and it helped him shape his ideas on how plants transform.
Now walk a few steps west. The Prato…
How long does the "Padua: the Chapel Where Giotto Taught Painting to Weep" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 13 stops and a 2.71 km walking route (~40 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "A Chapel on the Roman Arena" (coordinates 45.4114, 11.8792). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Padua and pick "Padua: the Chapel Where Giotto Taught Painting to Weep". No account required to start.
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