Palazzo della Ragione, Padua

The gigantic wooden horse on the western side of the hall was built in 1466 and is modelled on Donatello's Equestrian statue of Gattamelata which is in place in front of the Saint Antony Basilica.

[3] The ground floor has hosted the market hall of the city for 800 years and is likely the oldest in the European Union.

In 1306, Fra Giovanni, an Augustinian friar, covered the whole with one roof; originally there were three roofs, spanning the three chambers into which the hall was at first divided; the internal partition walls remained until the fire of 1420, when the Venetian architects who undertook the restoration removed them, throwing all three spaces into one and forming the present great hall, the Salone.

Some of the frescoes depict the astrological theories of Pietro d'Abano, a professor at Padua University in the 13th century.

The decoration consists of more than three hundred different scenes divided into two sections: the upper area, dating back to the fifteenth century, contains scenes that develop over three levels and shows that each month of the year corresponds to certain signs of the zodiac, trades and character traits.