Padua Cathedral

It was rebuilt in Romanesque style: the appearance of that medieval church can be seen in the frescoes by Giusto de' Menabuoi in the adjoining baptistery.

While in the past the design was attributed to Michelangelo, it was performed rather by Andrea della Valle and Agostino Righetto, and has much in common with earlier Paduan churches.

For this last step construction, later historians suppose that the facade was located to the east, with a confession and a crypt under the apse where bishop Tricidio is buried.

[2] Excavation and research by the Chair of Medieval Archeology at the University of Padua between 2011 and 2012 has expanded knowledge of the entire area around the Episcopal Palace, the cathedral, and the Baptistery.

In the north-east corner of the churchyard, they found the base of a tower with a square plan (10x10 metres; 33x33 ft.) Romanesque style from between the 10th and 12th century.

Among the finds are: a sarcophagus in stone for relics, a Lacerta altar dating from the fifth or sixth century, fragments of liturgical furnishings from various eras, graves (56 individuals), and traces of home workshops from the Longobard age.

[2] The new church stood in area of the current cathedral, with the identical orientation (facade to the east and presbytery to the west) divided into three naves and the transept.

On 2 January 1551 the chapter of canons approved the model for the presbytery by Michelangelo Buonarroti to replace that of Jacopo Sansovino.

The remains of the old cathedral were gradually removed and the new nave, designed by Girolamo Frigimelica Roberti and Francesco Maria Preti, as well as Giambattista Novello, built on the same site.

The side doors open onto a small courtyard for the presbytery and onto the Via Duomo, by the carriage entrance to the Episcopal palace.

On the bell tower is a plaque from the Roman era that mentions the Gens Fabia of Veio, a title in the history of Padua from 49 B.C.

A second construction to connect atrium, the loggia, and the episcopal palace would have opened to a covered ramp on the right, but was left unfinished.

The central nave has two large elliptical domes, matched to the chapels of St. Gregory Barbarigo and San Lorenzo Giustiniani.

[2] The first chapel on the right has an altar donated in 1760 by the Fraglia (guild) of the shoemakers, and an altarpiece by Dionisio Gardini depicting Pius X as a seminarian in Padua.

Originally it had a canvas by Giovanni Battista Mengardi depicting the Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispiniano, patron of shoemakers.

At the next altar is a modern representation of the Sacred Heart (R. Mulata), replacing San Carlo Borromeo in prayer by Giovanni Battista Bissoni which was removed to the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.