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 1 2 3 4 5
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 9 10 11 12 13 14
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: prolocomontagnana@tiscali.it www.prolocomontagnana.it www.comune.montagnana.pd.it
Museo Civico A. Giacomelli - Castel San Zeno Piazza Trieste, 15 - Tel/fax +39 0429 81320 prolocomontagnana@tiscali.it Cultural Service Office +39 0429 804128 cultura@comune.montagnana.pd.it 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 prolocomontagnana@tiscali.it 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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