PADUA (Ital. Padova), capital of the province of the same llama in n. Italy, stands on a beautiful plain on the Bacchiglione, 23 m. by railway W.S.W. of Venice. It is surrounded by walls and ditches, and is fortified by bastions. Its houses are lofty, supported for the most part on long rows of arches, generally pointed, and most of its streets, especially in the older quarters, are narrow, dark, dirty, and ill-paved. There are, however, several handsome gates, as those of San Giovanni, Savouarolo, and Fal conetto; a number of fine squares, of which the Prato della Valle is the largest and the finest, and is surrounded by a stream, and planted with trees; and several magnificent buildings. Of these the cafd Pedrocehi is esteemed the finest edifice of the kind in Daly. Portions ...)f a Roman edifice were discovered while the foundations of this building were being made, and the marbles found now adorn the pavement, etc., of the salon. The Palazzo della Munieipalita, built 1172-1219, is the most peculiar and the most national in the city. It is an immense building, forming one side of the market-place, rests wholly on arches, and is surrounded by a loggia (q.v.). Its e. end is covered with shields and armorial bearings, and its roof is said to be the largest unsupported by pillars in the world. Its hall is2671- ft. long, and 89 ft. wide, is covered with mystical and metaphor ical paintings, and contains a monument of Livy, the Roman historian, and a bust of Belzoni, the traveler, both natives of this city. The other chief edifices are the cathe dral, the church of Sant' Antonio, a beautiful building in the pointed style. with several Byzantine features, and remarkably rich and splendid in its internal tlecorations; and the churches of San Giorgio and Santa Giustina; all of them richly decorated with paint ings, sculptures, etc. The university of Padua, the most famous establishment in tlezt
city, was celebrated as early as the year 1221. It embraces 61 professors and other teachers, and is attended by about 1000 students. Connected with the university are an anatomical theater and a botanic garden, both dating from the 16th c., and each the first of its kind in Europe. There is also a museum of natural history, an observatory, a chemical laboratory, and a library of 120,000 volumes and 1500 manuscripts. There are' also numerous palaces, theaters, and hospitals. Pop. '72, 52,011.
Padua, the Roman Pataviani, is one of the most ancient towns of Italy. According to a wide-spread belief of antiquity, alluded to by Virgil, it was founded by the Trojan chief Anterior, but we really know nothing of its history until it became a Roman town. During the first centuries of the empire, it wasthe most flourishing city in the north of Italy, on account of its great woolen manufactures, and could return to the census more persons wealthy enough to be ranked as equites than any other place except Rome. But in 452 Attila utterly razed it to the ground. It was, however, rebuilt by Names, again destroyed by the Lombards, but once again rose from its ashes, and became a very famous city in the middle ages. It fell into the hands of the Carrara family in 1318, and in 1405 it was conquered by Venice, the fortunes of which it has since shared.