Search
Close this search box.

Palazzo della Ragione

Historical buildings and streets

Known simply as Il Salòn, the Palazzo della Ragione formerly housed the city’s courts, and has one of the largest raised rooms in all of Europe. Work upon it began in 1218, and the building is now recognised as one of the most famous civilian structures from the time of the Communes. In the years 1306-1308, the monk Giovanni degli Eremitani transformed the three large rooms within it to make a single hall, also designing the keel-vault roofing (so-called because from inside it looks like an upturned boat).

Giotto and his workshop were then commissioned to decorate the walls with frescoes, which would be destroyed by a fire in 1420. However, working on the basis of studies by Pietro d’Abano, a wealthy scholar of the time, the frescoes were then repainted by the Paduan Nicolò Miretto, working in collaboration with Stefano da Ferrara and other artists. What they created is one of the very few cycles of medieval astrological frescoes to have survived to this day. The relation between the images and the function of the large hall explains the presence of the animal figures, which served as symbols of the various courts that met here. The work of these courts is also reflected in the presence here of: allegorical images of Justice and Law; the depiction of the Commune in Assembly and of the Judgement of Solomon; a fresco which portrays a contemporary trial.

In the large hall you can also see the Pietra del Vituperio [The Stone of Censure], upon which insolvent debtors had to beat their buttocks three times after having removed their clothes. (The practice was at the origin of the Italian expression restare in braghe di tela, which means ‘to be left with nothing’ but whose literal translation is ‘to be left in cheap-cloth drawers’). There is also a large wooden horse which was originally created for a funfair by Annibale Capodilista and then donated to the city by his family.

 UNESCO World Heritage List.

opening hour: from Tuesday to Sunday 9am-7pm
last entry 30 minutes before closing hour

closing days: every Monday (except holidays), 1st May, 25th and 26th December, 1st January

 

Regular ticket €8

Reduced ticket €6 (Groups of at least 10 people, over 65 UE, individual members of associations and affiliates, residents of the municipality and of the province of Padua

Reduced school ticket €3 (Age 6 to 17, individual students and school groups, university students, academy students, teacher of all levels)

Free ticket
Children up to 5 years of age, Disabled persons, Disabled person’s companion, licensed tour guides in the performance of their duties, journalists with accreditions, ICOM members

Special gratuities

March 8, 2025 (Women’s Day): women

March 19, 2025 (Father’s Day): dads accompanied by children under 18

May 2025 (Mother’s Day): mothers accompanied by their children under the age of 18

June 10, 11, 12 and 13, 2025 (St. Anthony’s Patron Saint): all those visiting the City during St. Anthony’s Day celebrations

All of August 2025 (4th Anniversary of inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage List): Resident Citizens of Padua and Province, university students and Erasmus students at University of Padua

October 2, 2025 (Grandparents’ Day): grandparents accompanied by grandchildren under 18 years of age

December 8, 2025 – January 6, 2026 (Christmas Holiday 2025): Resident Citizens of Padua and Province; university students and Erasmus students at University of Padua.

booking and optional pre-sale (+ € 1,00 reservation fee per person)
booking number +39 049 2010020
online: vivaticket.com

Tag:

Piazza delle Erbe, Padova
https://padovamusei.it/it/sedi-monumentali/palazzo-ragione/il-palazzo-ragione
musei@comune.padova.it
(0039) 049 8205006

Resta in contatto

Iscriviti per ricevere aggiornamenti sugli eventi e le attività della città di Padova.