Palazzo della Ragione (Padua)

Palazzo della Ragione in Padua

The Palazzo della Ragione (German about court palace ) in the northern Italian city of Padua is one of the most important secular buildings of the High and Late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance in Europe. The building, located between two squares, served - comparable to an ancient basilica - initially as a market and court building, later mainly as a representative council and reception hall.

Building history

The Palazzo della Ragione was built in the years 1172 to 1218 and about a century later (1306–1309) it was increased by a roof structure, the huge wooden vault stabilized by tie rods combined three separate rooms. After a fire in 1420, the interior walls were removed by the Venetian architects commissioned with the reconstruction and the three rooms were combined into one huge hall; the existing vault was probably also renewed. In 1756 a tornado destroyed the roof and parts of the building, so that a new reconstruction was necessary.

architecture

Consisting of brick masonry wall are probably introduced two arcades bullets from the early 15th century. While the wide-span arcades on the ground floor are made of stone and provided with small round openings ( oculi ) in the arch spandrels, the brick-built arcade arches of the upper floor, which are only half as wide, rest on slender columns and close with a flat roof over a toothed, Diamond and arched frieze . The diamond and round arch frieze are repeated at the end of the wall of the recessed top floor. On both floors, the arched frieze accommodates the structuring pilaster strips , which are used wider and more often on the upper floor. Behind the arcade arches of the 1st floor there are biforias , the top third floor, which is recessed without an arcade arch, is illuminated by round and round arched windows. In the barrel hipped roof , which is surrounded by an unconventionally designed crenellated wreath and is now covered with zinc sheets, several small rectangular windows provide additional light and ventilation.

Council Chamber

Council hall ( salone )

The approx. 82 meter long, approx. 27 meter wide and approx. 25 meter high council chamber ( salone ) with its pillarless wooden vault held together only by iron tie rods, which is reminiscent of an inverted hull in its construction , is one of the most extraordinary architectural creations of the late Middle Ages. Maybe it is the work of Venetian ship carpenters that the lateral vaulted Abwalmungen mastered. After the fire in 1420, the hall was furnished with a cycle of frescoes in the years 1425-1440, with more than a hundred individual images linked to Pietro d'Abano's astrological and religious considerations and speculations .

On one of the two narrow sides stands a larger than life wooden horse, which is perceived as a copy of the horse from the equestrian statue of Gattamelata . There are also two Egyptian sphinxes on display, which were brought to Italy by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in the 19th century . A Foucault pendulum can be seen in one corner of the huge room .