Galileo's university
Founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers who left Bologna in search of greater freedom, the University of Padua is one of the oldest in the world. Under the Republic of Venice it was a centre of free thought, open to students of every nationality and religion, with the motto "Universa universis patavina libertas". Its historic seat is Palazzo Bo, named after an inn with the sign of an ox ("bo" in Venetian) that stood here.
Guided tours of the palace show the Renaissance Old Courtyard, with the coats of arms of students and rectors; the Aula Magna; the Sala dei Quaranta, with the portraits of forty famous foreign students and the wooden chair of Galileo Galilei, who taught mathematics here from 1592 to 1610, the most fruitful years of his life, during which he built his telescope; and the Anatomical Theatre, built in 1594 by Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente, the oldest permanent anatomical theatre in the world: a steep wooden funnel with six tiers of balconies where students stood to watch dissections. In 1678 Padua awarded the first university degree in the world to a woman, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, whose statue is in the palace.
Tip: tours take place several times a day, also in English; book in advance. Opposite, the historic Caffè Pedrocchi, a café "without doors", is a symbol of the city.
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