ontagnana. - Turismo Padova

ontagnana.
A medieval gem
of antique splendour.
History.
The 2-kilometre-long walls surrounding the historical
centre of Montagnana are the best preserved of all the
town defensive structures in the Veneto. In ancient
times, Montagnana’s strategic position favoured
settlements, as the town is located along the regional
road no. 10 Padana Inferiore at about 50 kilometres
from important artistic cities like Padua, Verona,
Vicenza, Mantua and Ferrara, and at 80 kilometres
from Venice. The area was already inhabited in the
late Neolithic Age and, in Roman times, Montagnana
was the ideal location to control the entire region.
A military garrison was built to guard the bridge on
the river Adige along the Via Emilia Altinate (until
589 AD, when the catastrophic flood known as the
Rotta della Cucca destroyed it). In the 10th century,
the frequent, devastating raids by the Hungarians
prompted the construction of a fortification in
Montagnana, probably around today’s Castle of
San Zeno. The small fortified village later became the
feudal centre of the Marquesses Este (or Estensi) and
participated in the struggle between the Papacy and the
Empire. In the
12th century, the
army of Ezzelino
III da Romano, the
Imperial viceroy
of Frederick II,
fought against
the Guelph
League of the
Marquesses Este,
who supported
the Pope. In
1242, after
burning down
the city, Ezzelino
conquered it and,
acknowledging
its strategic
position, started
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its restoration by
raising the Mastio
(a medieval tower)
which still bears
his name. After
a short period
under the Empire,
Montagnana first
returned under the
rule of the Estensi
and, in 1275,
was included in
the territory of
the municipality
of Padua. The
portions of brick
walls near the
two fortified gates
date back to those times. In the 14th century, except for
a short period (1317-1337) under the Della Scala family,
Montagnana was part of the seigneury of the Carrara
family, lords of Padua. They built two new, imposing
enclosures in brick and trachyte, with 24 sentry towers
and a fortified gate known as the Rocca degli Alberi.
In 1405, weakened by the long-lasting wars against the
Serenissima Republic of Venice, the city surrendered
and gradually lost its military and strategic importance.
However, its economic power grew thanks to the
investments of Veneto aristocrats, who constructed
sumptuous buildings and
collected precious works of art.
1 Castle of San Zeno.
2 Interior of a Carrara tower.
3 Rocca degli Alberi and south walls.
Castle of San Zeno,
Mastio of Ezzelino
and Civic Museum.
In the eastern part of Montagnana, the castle of San
Zeno is the most ancient area of the city and dates back
to the Estensi period, or perhaps even earlier. Except
for a Venetian section and the corresponding Austrian
raise, the castle was presumably built at the time
of Ezzelino III da Romano (13th century). The main
building has
a rectangular
plan with an
impressive
interior
courtyard
protected by
sentry towers
at each corner
and by the
Mastio of
Ezzelino (40
m), which
offers breathtaking views of the historical centre, the
surrounding lush countryside and the Euganean Hills.
Until the 19th century, to provide additional protection,
the castle was surrounded by a moat - even on the
side facing the city. Under Venetian rule, the castle was
known as the tana dei cànevi as it was used to store
hemp, which was locally produced and employed on
Venetian vessels. The castle also hosted the Venetian
troops in winter.
An army barracks until World War II, the building
of today’s Civic Museum was abandoned for years,
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Civic Museum ‘A. Giacomelli’: the Ceramics Room
and the Art Gallery.
Mastio of Ezzelino from the entrance of Porta Padova.
Civic Museum ‘A. Giacomelli’: the Roman division.
restored between 1994 and 1996, and opened to the
public. Today, its rooms host the Tourist Office, the local
Centro di Studi sui Castelli (Castles Study Centre), the
Municipal Library, the Municipal Historical Archive and
the Civic Museum. The Civic Museum ‘A. Giacomelli’
has an archaeological division with findings dating
from the late Neolithic Age to Roman times, and a
medieval and modern division with frescoes, Veneto
paintings and a large collection of pottery. The music
section contains images,
archive documents and
the stage costumes of
Giovanni Martinelli and
Aureliano Pertile, two
well-known tenors from
Montagnana, both born
in 1885.
Villa Pisani.
In the mid-16th century, the wealthy Venetian nobleman
Francesco Pisani commissioned the well-known
architect Andrea Palladio the construction of a mansion
to serve both as a holiday home and as a centre for the
farming activities deriving from his real property in
the surrounding
countryside.
The villa was
built next to the
Castle of San
Zeno, as if it
intended to give
visual emphasis
of the power of
the Serenissima
in defeating the
ancient seigneury
nobility.
The coat of arms
of the Pisani
family stands
out on the main
façade, which is
divided by two
orders of columns
- one Ionian and one Doric. Overlooking elegant
gardens, the back of the villa has an airy portico and
overhanging loggia. An exquisite frieze with alternating
triglyphs and metopes runs all around the four sides
of the building. In the entrance hall, four statues by
Alessandro Vittoria represent the four seasons.
Palazzo Comunale.
The palazzo was probably built in 1537-38 and partially
renovated in 1593 after a fire damaged its upper
section. Many stylistic elements of the building have
led experts to attribute it, although still unofficially, to
the architect Michele Sanmicheli from Verona, and the
structure therefore bears his name. The most precious
room in the building is the Sala Consiliare, whose
ceiling was decorated in 1605 by Marcantonio Vanin
with refined ligneous inlays.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II
and its buildings.
The heart of the town is the ancient Listón (large
and straight high street) in grey trachyte from the
Euganean Hills with white stone inlays to imitate the
Listón of St Mark’s Square in Venice. Elegant buildings
flank this street, like the Palazzo della Loggia (1877),
which was built in place of an ancient church and
an annexed pilgrims’ home. The main cultural and
mundane events of the town took place here. The
covered wheat
market was hosted
under the arcade of
the loggia and in the
nearby Piazza Grani.
The refined 18thcentury Monte di
Pietà (pawnbroking)
building was
built in 1497 to
compete against Jew
pawnbrokers.
On the southern
side of the square is
the refined Palazzo
Valeri (18th-century
style) and, next to
it, Palazzo Zanella,
which has two very
unusual corollashaped chimneys. The imposing medieval-looking clay
building that dominates the square hosts the Cassa
di Risparmio: an excellent reproduction, it was built
in 1924 after a fire destroyed the
previous buildings. Proceeding
north towards Via Roma is Palazzo
Santini (19th century), whose
clypeus (round shield) portraits of
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Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II.
Villa Pisani designed by Palladio.
Palazzo Valeri.
Palazzo Comunale ‘Sanmicheli’.
View of the Duomo.
Mazzini and Garibaldi and decorations in the colours
of the Italian flag symbolise the Risorgimento and
the Italian Unification. Further on is Palazzo Pomello
Chinaglia (15th century), which some experts believe
was either one of the residences of the Gatteschi da
Narni or of the Pisani family.
Duomo
of S. Maria
Assunta.
The late Gothic
façade of the
Duomo (cathedral)
is softened by a
refined white marble
portal traditionally
attributed to Jacopo
Sansovino.
As construction
of the Duomo
commenced in
1431 and ended
in 1502, the result
was architecturally
different from the
original design, and
more in line with
the new Renaissance
style. The Cathedral
contains historical
and artistic
masterpieces by
well-known artists
who contributed
towards outlining
the final aspect
of the building.
Two frescoes on
the counter-façade
represent two Biblical heroes: on the left is David,
who has just defeated the giant Goliath, and on the
right is Judith, who has just beheaded the Assyrian
general Holofernes. Painted between the 15th and
16th centuries, these frescoes have been attributed to
Giorgione, whose presence in the town is documented
by his only sketch of the Castle of San Zeno (now in
Rotterdam). The canvas depicting the Battle of Lepanto
illustrates the famous victory of the Christian Holy
League over the Ottomans (1571). Further left is the
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Duomo of Santa Maria Assunta.
Duomo of Santa Maria Assunta: interior.
Exterior façade of the south wall and the church
of St Francis.
small Cappella del Rosario (Rosary Chapel), whose
symbolic frescoes date back to the late 15th century.
In the past its dome was a blue star-spangled sky with
constellations: a ‘snapshot’ of an eclipse in Leo, an
extraordinary event that the people of Montagnana
wanted to freeze in time and have immortalised in their
Duomo. Proceeding along the nave, there are artworks
like the altarpiece representing the Virgin and Child in
a Throne Surrounded by Saints and St Catherine of
Alexandria (right wall) enclosed by an elegant altar in
Berica stone, both produced in the early 1500s by the
Vicenza painter Giovanni Buonconsiglio, known as the
Marescalco, who also painted the large fresco of The
Assumption in the bowl-shaped vault of the apse.
In the middle of the apse is the high altar representing
The Transfiguration (1555) by Paolo Veronese.
The apse also contains sixty carved stalls (1500s),
which were decorated one century later with panels
representing scenes taken from the Old and New
Testaments.
The Church of St Francis.
Although
the earliest
documents
regarding the
church and
convent of St
Francis date
to 1350, some
Romanesque
elements of these
buildings suggest
that they might
actually be far
more ancient.
Inside, above the portal, there is a precious 18thcentury organ by Gaetano Callido, and 14th-century
frescoes near the lateral nave.
The Virgin with Child and Saints John the Baptist,
Mark, Francis and Zeno by Palma the Younger is also
of great artistic importance.
The walls.
In 1337, Ubertino da Carrara, the third seigneur
of Padua, commissioned the construction of new,
more imposing defensive walls, which ended when
the fortification known as the Rocca degli Alberi
was built in 1362 under Francesco the Elder. The
enclosure commissioned by Ubertino is different from
the the first set of walls built by the Municipality of
Padua in that it is made of large blocks of Euganean
trachyte alternating with layers of bricks. There are 24
polygonal towers which, being 17 metres high, offered
central 5-light mullioned window on the piano nobile
are among its most interesting features.
Ospedale della Natività.
safe sentry posts. In the Middle Ages, each tower
had several wooden floors and a roof, where the war
machine was placed. Inside, an archway built along
the Carrara enclosure served both as a wall walk for
the sentries and, below, contained built-in ‘cupboards’
known as cànipe, in which the locals could store their
farming tools. From the 15th century onwards, when
the walls lost their defensive role, the towers were
used as homes or storage rooms - functions that some
of them preserve to this day. The surrounding moat
(between 20 and 40 metres wide) was filled with water
from the Fiumicello, an artificial canal dug in 1277
to convey water from the river Frassine. The moat
prevented both the projectiles of the war machines
and the enemies on foot to reach the walls. The wall
foundations were protected from water thanks to an
embankment, the mottón, which survives to this day.
Palazzo Magnavin-Foratti.
An extraordinary 15th-century building, this majestic
palazzo is reminiscent of the Venetian buildings on
the Canal Grande. According to some historians,
the Republic of Venice donated the building to the
celebrated mercenary Erasmo da Narni, known as il
Gattamelata, to thank him for his service, and his
wife, Giacoma da Leonessa, lived there all her life.
A finely carved soft stone portal and the beautiful
This oratory with annexed convent (1407) provided
accommodation and medical assistance to pilgrims,
orphans and disabled people, and gave financial
support to girls
who could not
afford a wedding
dowry. Its aiding
function is
indicated by the
high-relief over
the door, in which
the Virgin, her
arms stretched
out, protects the
worshippers.
The two-storey
building contained
a dormitory on
the ground floor
and and a small
oratory on the top
floor, which was
decorated with
precious frescoes
attributed to Giovanni Buonconsiglio, sections of
which are now preserved at the Academy of Venice.
Rocca degli Alberi.
Built by Francesco the Elder da Carrara between 1360
and 1362, this fortification reinforced the western
walls facing the enemies from Verona. Originally, this
section was weak both because it was made of brick
and because it lacked sentry towers. The cleverlydesigned military fortress was built in a very short
time under the supervision of the architect Franceschin
de’ Schici. The Rocca stood on an island, surrounded
by water both internally and externally, and its heart,
the mastio (tower), could only be accessed through a
complex series of drawbridges, portcullises and doors.
The façades overlooking the town and the countryside
are embellished by the coats of arms of Padua (the
Crux Commissa), of Francesco the Elder (a crest with
a winged, horned Moor), and of the Carrara family (a
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Rocca degli Alberi.
Rocca degli Alberi: entrance.
Palazzo Magnavin-Foratti.
Church of St Benedict.
Church of St Anthony the Abbot.
Palio of the 10 Municipalities.
cart). Unfortunately, only
the first is still visible,
because as soon as the
Venetians conquered
the town, they whittled
the others away to erase
all signs of previous
dominations.
two buildings is a small chapel that contained the ashes of
the Venetian admiral Vettor Pisani. Further on is the stark,
severe 15th-century Villa Gatteschi, the relatives of the
already-mentioned Gattamelata. Walking back towards the
centre, on the opposite side of the street, there is Palazzo
Giusti Chinaglia (15th century) restored in the 1700s,
and the Loggetta del Veneziano (16th century), which
some experts attribute to Falconetto. The building was the
hunting lodge of the Pesaro family first and of the Pisani
household later.
Church
of St Benedict.
The present late Baroque structure was built in 1771
in the site of the previous church that dated back to
the 16th century, when Benedictine nuns settled in
Montagnana and taught girls in the annexed convent.
Although Napoleon destroyed the convent in the 1800s,
the educational centre has operated until recently as a
State boarding school for girls. Religious ceremonies are
no longer performed in the church, which now hosts
exhibitions and concerts.
Church
of St Anthony
the Abbot.
Recorded in 12th-century
documents, this small
Romanesque oratory,
frequently renovated over
the years, is the oldest
church in Montagnana.
It hosted Antonite or Tau
monks, who accommodated
and assisted pilgrims and
the ill. The history of the
building is shrouded in
mystery and may include
the Knights Templar,
as suggested by many
architectural and decorative
elements. On 17 January, the day of St Anthony the
Abbot at None (3.00pm), a beam of light filtering from
the rose window casts a disc-shaped radiance at the
base of St Anthony’s statue on the high altar.
Main events.
Festival
of the Berico-Euganean
Veneto Prosciutto.
Every third weekend of May, the
town promotes the P.D.O.
(Protected Designation of Origin)
Berico-Euganean Veneto Prosciutto.
The market stalls also offer various
types of cheese, sweets and C.D.O.
(Controlled Designation of Origin)
wines. The walled town opens its
doors to visitors by offering them
food-tasting workshops, concerts,
theatre performances, arts and crafts exhibitions and guided tours.
The ‘G. Martinelli - A. Pertile’
International Singing Competition.
In June, contestants from all over the world gather in Montagnana
to take part in this competition for concert and opera singers.
In addition to receiving a monetary prize, participants are heard
and judged by famous singers, agents and directors of prestigious
theatres.
Festival of the Assumption.
This event of popular tradition takes place in August and features
a large amusement park, food stands, a street market, charity bingo
and a spectacular firework display.
Palio of the 10 municipalities of the Montagnana area
This annual event, first mentioned in the city statutes of 1366, takes
place on the first Sunday of September. The streets become crowded
with knights, noblewomen, common people and merchants. In the
horse race, the 10 municipalities of the ancient Sculdascia (in the
past, this area was a defensive territory) struggle to win a prize: a
drapery painted by important contemporary artists.
Fair of the Montagnana area.
On the first weekend of October, this event promotes the rural
economy - from farming products to popular traditions - with
displays of farming tools and machines, courtyard animals, typical
products, plants and flowers. Folk bands, street artists and an
amusing tourist train make the visit more enjoyable.
Hibernales ludi.
Borgo Veneziano.
Every year, on the last Sunday of December, Montagnana evokes its
past with parades of historical groups, flag wavers, performers and
artists proposing medieval scenes and music.
Located outside the walls of Montagnana, along the road
to Padua, this small village was made up of the sumptuous
mansions of Venetian aristocrats. Some of these buildings
may still be admired today. After the Palladian Villa
Pisani there is Palazzo Giusti Sanmartini (1756), which
belonged to a branch of the Pisani family. Between the
This market counts between 80 and 100 exhibitors who display their
objects in the main street of the historical centre on the third Sunday
each month (except July and August). On this occasion, there are
also street performers, animators and stalls with typical products.
Antiques market .
Weekly market: Thursday mornings.
Supported by:
Tourist Information Office IAT Montagnana
Piazza Trieste, 15 - Tel/fax +39 0429 81320
e-mail: [email protected]
www.prolocomontagnana.it
www.comune.montagnana.pd.it
Museo Civico A. Giacomelli - Castel San Zeno
Piazza Trieste, 15 - Tel/fax +39 0429 81320
[email protected]
Cultural Service Office +39 0429 804128
[email protected]
Opening times:
Wed-Fri: 11.00am
Summer:
Sat. 10.30, 11.30am / 4.00, 5.00, 6.00
Sun. 11.00am, 12.00pm / 4.00, 5.00, 6.00
Winter:
Sat. 10.30, 11.30am / 3.00, 4.00, 5.00pm
Sun. 11.00am, 12.00pm / 3.00, 4.00, 5.00pm
Useful phone numbers
Town hall: +39 0429 81247
Local Police: +39 0429 81308
Tourist Office I.A.T. - Pro Loco: +39 0429 81320
Municipal Library: +39 0429 83690
Hospital: +39 0429 808111
Post office: +39 0429 806911
AIRPORT
TREVISO
Mastio di Ezzelino - Castel San Zeno
Piazza Trieste, 15 - Tel/fax + 39 0429 81320
[email protected]
Opening times:
Summer:Tue. 4.00-7.00
Wed-Sat: 09.30am-12.30pm/4.00-7.00pm
Sun and bank holidays: 10.00am-1.00pm/4.00-7.00pm
Winter: Mar. 3.00 – 6.00pm
Wed-Sat: 09.30am-12.30pm/3.00-6.00pm
Sun and bank holidays: 10.00am-1.00pm/3.00-6.00pm
(Closed Mon, Tue morning, 25 Dec and 1 Jan)
MOTORWAY EXITS
TOWNS
EUGANEAN HILLS
AIRPORT
VENICE
DIRECTION MILAN
Duomo of Santa Maria Assunta
MOTO
RWAY
A4
A4
RWAY
AIRPORT
VERONA
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II - Tel. +39 0429 81009
Opening times:
Summer:08.30am-12.00pm/3.00-6.30pm
Winter: 08.30am-12.00pm/2.30-5.00pm
DIRECTION TRIESTE
MOTO
Rocca degli Alberi
Via Matteotti - Tel. +39 0429 804102 (booking required)
MOTORWAY A13
Church of St Francis
Via Scaligera
Opening times:
Mon-Fri: 7.30am-6.00pm
Sat: open only for 8.30am Mass
Sun: 6.50am-5.30pm
DIRECTION BOLOGNA
Riviera dei Mugnai, 8
35137 Padova
Tel. +39 049 8767911
Fax +39 049 650794
Provincia
di Padova
Comune
di Montagnana
Pro Loco
Montagnana
© Photographs: photographic archives Francesco Castagna, Ferruccio Dall’Aglio, Municipality of Montagnana. Translation: Elena Calandruccio.
May 2010
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