In the middle of Padua there is a building that I find, well, mysterious! In other words, looking at this building, I can't tell you what the use is.
The top of the building looks to be perhaps some fancy opera house. The bottom is typical Italian with its colonnade. The upper story has a similar colonnade, but with the flavor of northern Italy and Venice. The arches are rounded in the Roman style, but they are more lacey and slender.
This building is the Palazzo della Ragione - part civic building and part market. It is also one-hundred percent gathering area. The building was constructed around the year AD 1200, and major renovations took place in the mid-1400's, the heart of the Renaissance.
In typical Italian fashion the square out front hosts a market where you can but goods of all sorts. Inside on the ground floor you can grab a bite to eat at many of the stalls.
The upstairs hall is a large room, originally used for civic meetings. The walls are covered with frescoes of religious figures, personifications of civic ideals, and wild animals!
The Palazzo della Ragione appears to be unlike any other civic building I have visited. I want to compare it to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, but it lacks the harsh stone forticification. It certainly has a basilica feel of Rome, but it lacks the heavy concrete and brick walls. I would have to say - the building seems like Padua.
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