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Regionedel Veneto

Parco Regionaledei Colli Euganei

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Riviera dei Mugnai, 835137 PadovaTel. +39 049 8767911Fax +39 049 650794

www.turismopadova.itwww.turismotermeeuganee.it

MUSEO NAZIONALE ATESTINO Via G. Negri, 9/c - tel. 39+0429.2085Opening time: from 09.00 a.m till 08.00 p.m. yearly open(closed on Christmas, January 1st and May 1st)

CASTLE’S PUBLIC GARDENSVia G. Negri - Free entranceSummer opening time (April 1st - September 30th):from 08.00 a.m. till 11.00 p.m.Winter opening time (October 1st - March 31st):from 09.00 a.m till 05.00 p.m.

DUOMO ABBAZIALE DI S. TECLAPiazza S. Tecla - tel. 39+0429.2009Opening time: from 10.00 till 12.00 a.m. and from 04.00till 06.00 p.m.

BASILICA DI S. MARIA DELLE GRAZIEVia Principe Umberto, 55 - tel. 39+0429.2151 Opening time: from 10.00 till 12.00 a.m. and from 04.00till 06.00 p.m.

Useful numbers:Town Hall: tel. 39+0429.617511Local Police: tel. 39+0429.2688Tourist Office: tel. 39+0429.600462Civic Library: tel. 39+0429.619044

Information:IAT EsteVia Guido Negri, 9/aTel.: 39+0429.600462 Fax: 39+0429.611105

www.comune.este.pd.ite-mail: [email protected]

Comunedi Este

Provinciadi Padova

© Foto: Renato Tuzza - Este.

Realized withthe contribution of

Main events:• 3rd Sunday of each month: Antiques

and Second-hand market• Wednesdays and saturdays: Weekly market• April: Este in Fiore - Exhibition-market of flowers • April: At the Court of the Estensi

Historic medieval re-enactment • May: Atestiadi - Sports festival • Late May-Early June: Este Fair. • Summer: Shows and Events• September: International Chamber

Music Festival• October: European Festival

European Cities in Este• December: Christmas Exhibition Market

How to reach Este:

ste.EA town with veryremote origins

marquis, began one of theprincipal Italian dynastiesand moved their capital to Ferrara (1239). Conquered twice by Ezzelino da Romano,who had the Castledestroyed (1238 and1249), in the XIV centuryEste was disputed by theScaligeri, the Carraresiand the Visconti until it surrendered spontaneouslyto Venice in 1405, when

a long period of peace began. During the Venetiandomination the town went through a period of economic wealth and demographic growth, unfortunately interrupted by the dramatic plagueepidemic in 1630. The administrative reorganizationordered by Napoleon and the affirmation of a middleclass gave new impulse to the municipality,and initiatives of remarkable interest were promoted,such as the setting up of the National Museum of Este and the opening of public schools. Este’sdevelopment continued even after it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

Este, a town with very remote origins, rises in the province of Padua in the southern area of the Euganei Hills. It is 30 km from Padua, 60 from Venice and Bologna and only 8 from the municipality of Monselice, and can be reachedby way of the A13, taking the Monselice exit, or else the S.S. road n. 16 Padua-Rovigo and S.R.n. 10 Padana Inferiore. The town of Este owes its toponym to the river Adige, Athesisfor the Romans, that flowed through this territoryuntil 589, when the famous break mentioned by Paolo Diacono moved its course a few kilometres to the south. Romanization of Venetowas a peaceful process: the Veneti allied themselves with the Romans against the Gauls, andobtained the status of Roman colonia. Este managed to maintain administrative autonomy until the end of the Republican Age, but the political centralization during the Imperial Age did not allowfor maintenance of former magistracies. Afterthe fall of the Roman Empire, the town of Este suffereda disastrous attack by the troops of Attila, and wasreduced to a simple country village. After the tenthcentury, the town arose again grouped around thecastle of its feudal lord Azzo, later Azzo II d’Este.The Lords of Este, after having obtained the title of

A town with very remote originsThe present building dates back to the fifth decade of the XIV centuryand was erected by Ubertino daCarrara on the ruins of the previousfortification, destroyed in 1249 bythe troops of Ezzelino da Romano.The oldest nucleus, dating backto the period of the great invasions,consists of a circle of walls with a little church and a large centralbuilding. Starting from the XI century the original structure wasincorporated within a series ofwalls and residential buildings until,towards the mid-XIII century, themarquis of Este restored the castleas a defence structure.The construction has a square base,surrounded by a sturdy wall spacedby twelve little towers.The keep is on the hill, in a position of dominanceover the entire town; it culminates in a squaretower and has a small castle or Fort of Assistanceto the north-east, that originally constituted theentrance to the fortress.The area within the walls is now equipped

as a public garden. The Castle was used for defencepurposes until the town’s spontaneous surrenderto the Republic of Venice, when the entire structurewas sold to the Mocenigo family: they werethe ones who had the Palazzetto built in the latesixteenth-century, where the National Museumof Este is now located.

The Castle

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EUGANEAN HILLS

DIRECTION MILANO

VERONAAIRPORT

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DIRECTION BOLOGNA

MOTORWAY A4

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DIRECTION TRIESTE

Regionedel Veneto


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Comunedi Este

Provinciadi Padova








How to reach Este:







The Castle


Visiting hours, didactical material and public servicesThe museum is open daily 9am-8pm. Entranceis free for European citizens under 18 and over 65.Visits can be organized for school groups, by prior booking. In occasion of the centenary of its institution(6 July 1902 - 6 July 2002), the museum has enlargedthe selection of services it offers, in particular in the context of communications. Besides the already existing informative sources - the little free brochure and some important monographs - sixteen panels in fourlanguages have been created in order to facilitate tours.Also in the context of services offered, it is worthremembering the system of audio-guides, that allow oneto listen both inside and outside to useful information,without being tied to the itinerary.

Archaeological itinerarySet up by the Archaeological Superintendencyfor the Region of Veneto in collaboration withthe Councils for Culture of the Province of Padua andthe Municipality of Este, the Itinerary, six kilometres long,is entirely within the present town’s territory and can becovered on foot or by bicycle. Along the entire routesixteen numbered panels illustrate the excavationscarried out in loco, the material discovered and the positions of the various zones in relationto the settlements of pre-Roman and Roman Este.

1887) and transferred it toPalazzo Mocenigo. The museum,was restructured in the earlyeighties and was opened againto the public in 1984. The tourwinds through eleven hallsstarting on the first floor. Beloware briefly illustrated the mostinteresting itineraries both in thepre-Roman section (halls I-V) andin the Roman one (halls VI-X).In the first hall artefacts areassembled ranging fromthe Eneolithic Age (III millenniumBC) to the Bronze Age andthe very beginning of the IronAge (IX century BC). There areremarkable artefacts in stone and ceramics as well asmany clay vases in various forms made of a reddishmixture. The second hall is devoted to the villages ofthe Iron Age, pertaining to the town and its territory;there are collections of fibulas in bronze and semi-worked iron, tools for weaving, earthenvases. There are a great many examples of kitchenand eating pottery in this hall. In the third hall,devoted to the ancient burial cults, artefacts areassembled relating to the principal necropolises inEste in the IX-III centuries BC. The itinerary windsthrough about seventy tomb furnishings. The mostvaluable object here is the bronze statue“Benvenuti”, dating back to approximately 600BC;it is a cup in beaten and chiselled bronze featuring

Stronghold of Ponte di Torre The stronghold is what remains of the separate fortsthat, together with the castle and the battlementedwalls, protected Este even before the epochof Carrara. Structurally, it consists of a circle of wallsand a square tower, 24 m high.

Civic tower of the Porta Vecchia The present tower can be dated late-XVII centuryand rises on the spot of a previous gate.A clock was on it, as attested by the distributionof the rooms inside. At a height of eight metresthere is a first room containing two blocksof trachyte, formerly used as counterweights forthe clock; at a height of twelve metres there isthe old room “of poles and attachments”. Finally, at a height of approx. twenty metres, we find the bell-cell, containing the support structure of the bronze bell forged in 1637.

Ceramics of EsteEste’s ceramics are unique in the world in terms of make, materials and workmanship, and today are still made by hand. Ceramics production hascontinued more or less without interruption fromprehistoric times to our days, as attested by artefactsconserved in the National Museum of Este, thatgive examples of the various levels of evolution in taste and technique. After the pause during the Middle Ages, manufactory was launched againin the eighteenth century, after Europe had abandonedthe ceramics makers in the Orient and turnedto local manufacturers.In that period in Este there were already six perfectly operative manufactories that arose at the time of the discovery of the “secret” of orientalporcelain. In this respect, there is talk of a real“craftsmen’s flight” from the manufactory of Novedi Bassano, a diaspora that led to the diffusion of working methods and styles in many Italian and foreign towns, but that above all caused a fewfactories to excel in Este, like the Brunello manufactory, situated at the Girometta bridge, the Costa-Fabris one, located in Via Settabile,and the most important, the Franchini one with headquarters in Borgo Schiavin. Franchini was a goldsmith and engraver, and he decided to foundhis own factory of earthenware and porcelain, with the collaboration of Jean Pierre Varion, a very

expert former: this associationgave rise to a production

of objects in ceramicsof great artistic value.In the Museum ofEste, for example, onecan admire a “Christ”by Franchini; in the showcases of the museum there areeven the original

Main Ceramics Producers in Este:• Antica Ceramica d’Este - via Rovigo, 39 - Tel. 0429.3493• Ceramica d’Este Arte Più

via Vicenza, 1 - Baone - Tel. 0429.4258• Ceramica Euganea

viale dell’Industria, 13 - Tel. 0429.50352• Ceramiche d’Arte Mary - via Galilei, 19 - Tel. 0429.601059• Ceramiche Estensi - via Volta - Tel. 0429.4848• Ceramiche Marcuzzo - via Monache, 5 - Tel. 0429.602601• Este Ceramiche Porcellane

via Sabina, 31 - Tel. 0429.2270 - 0429.3064• Gastone Primon M° Scultore

piazza Trento, 22 - Tel. 348.1993370• Scuola Bottega della Ceramica di C. Padovan

Viale Fiume, 55 - Tel. 347.1087090• Porcellane L’Arte di B.B.M.

via Volta, 16 - Tel. 0429.602030

zoomorphic figures and scenes from daily life.The fourth hall collects the ex-votives from Este’splaces of cult, the most important of which lay alongthe course of the Adige and was devoted to the goddess Reitia, a healing divinity. The fifth hallexhibits the most recent pre-Roman finds in Veneto.In the sixth hall, the first of the Roman section,Romanization of the territory is documented through

the collection of archaeological, epigraphicand linguistic documents. Besides this,there are beautiful tomb furnishings withelegant silver jewels and a large amount of grey ceramics.The material in the seventh halls consistsmainly of public inscriptions namingthe people covering determined positions.The eighth hall is devoted to thenecropolises, and burial monumentsare presented divided by type (inhumationor incineration) and form (altars, niches,slabs, sarcophagi, etc.). In the ninth andtenth halls the objects exhibited are linkedto domestic and economic activities,and there are also jewels and objects for personal hygiene and beauty. The museumtour ends in the twelfth hall, where the

objects exhibited are from much more recent epochs,early Middle Ages, Middle Ages and Renaissance,and they come from demolished buildings.

The deep cultural roots of Este are reflected in thestrong attraction that this town has always hadon poets, writers, artists and men of letters. Este keeps numberless evidences of the intense cultural activity which has been characterising this town for centuries, one has only to think of the troubadour poets who met at the court of Azzo VI d’Este in the XIII c., or at the artists and men of letters who gathered at the mansion of the Venetian nobleman Alvise Cornaro in the XVI c., at the great Romantic poets Byron and Shelley, who lived at Villa Kunkler, at the presence of Bruce Chatwin at Villa Albrizzi.

Town HallOverlooking piazza Maggiore, the Town Hall is an elegant building with loggias dating back to the XVII century, recently restored; the balconyabove the portico is an eighteenth-century addition.

Palazzetto of the ScaligeriOn the south side of the square one can see the Palazzetto of the Scaligeri, where now the Reading-Room Society has its headquarters. In this fourteenth-century gothic building there is now a library containing fifty thousand volumes.

Prince’s palace The building rises on a hill; it was built for the Contarinis according to a plan by VincenzoScamozzi, who had it given a central base, with a Greek-cross hall. It owes its name to an episodefrom its history, that is, when Alvise Contarini,during a sojourn in the villa, received communication of his election as doge.

eighteenth-century moulds found in the old factory,of which copies are used today to make bowls,vases and dishes.There are three ways of working with ceramics:with turner’s wheel, at the strainer, filling the moulds with liquid earth (this is a techniqueused for large objects), or else with presses. Once ready, the object goes into the oven to become a “biscuit”. When it has been cooked it is ready for decoration. All phases of workand decoration are carried out by hand, and for thedecorations only natural colours or oxides are used.Among the decorations characteristic of ceramicsfrom Este, fruit and vegetables prevail, as the mostclassical tradition requires. Once decorated,the object is placed in a tub containing glasspowder; with this procedure, known by the nameof “crystalline”, the decoration looks shiny and doesnot come off. At this point the object is readyfor the second oven session, while a third is provided for exclusively for those objects thathave decorations in gold or a bright red colour.

The National Museum of Este The first collection of epigraphs, from Roman times,was assembled by the nobleman Giorgio Contariniin the early seventeenth century; this first collectionwas gradually enriched with material from tombfurnishings discovered in Este in the second halfof the nineteenth century. The nucleus of today’sMuseum of Este is owed however to VincenzoFracanzani, magistrate of Este, who in 1834 decidedto institute a collection initially called Civic LapidaryMuseum, at first located in the church of St. Francis,adjacent to the Oratory of Saint Mary. This location proved to be inadequate and the Stateinstituted the National Museum (decree of 1 April

Abbey Cathedral of Santa TeclaErected on the ruins of a previous early Christianbasilica, the Cathedral was rebuilt in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Its interior is elliptical, with a large presbytery; there are many works of art, amongwhich the "Intercession by Saint Tecla" by Giambattista Tiepolo stands out. Canvasses by the local painter Antonio Zanchi decorate the parsonage.

Basilica of Santa Maria delle GrazieThe Sanctuary was built following testamentarydispositions by Taddeo d'Este, who had a fifteenth-century Byzantine icon placed there that wasconsidered miraculous. On top of the first, modestfifteenth-century building, a second one was built

in 1717. The interior is in the form of a latin cross;among the works of art conserved here the canvasof "Sant'Antonio da Padova and Child and otherSaints" by Zanchi and the valuable marble corniceof the miraculous icon are outstanding.

Church of San MartinoAttested since the XI century, the church of San Martino is the oldest in Este. The building has a simple and elegant structure, dating back to the fourteenth-century reconstruction and the successive one in the seventeenth century.It is basilica-based with a nave and two aisles.

Church of Santa Mariadelle Consolazioni or degli ZoccoliThis sixteenth-century building has a single nave.Inside one can admire a Roman mosaic floor in the chapel of the Virgin.

Church of the Blessed Virgin of HealthThe construction of the church began in 1639 and was completed in 1640 because it had collapsed.The building, octagonal, is rich in paintings, commissioned to famous artists, among whomAntonio Zanchi, the author of three canvasses of greatrelevance: the Presentation of Mary at the Temple,the Nuptials of the Virgin and the Annunciation.
















via Volta, 16 - Tel. 0429.602030































via Volta, 16 - Tel. 0429.602030































via Volta, 16 - Tel. 0429.602030

















MOTORWAY EXITS

TOWNS

EUGANEAN HILLS

DIRECTION MILANO

VERONAAIRPORT

VENEZIAAIRPORT

TREVISOAIRPORT

DIRECTION BOLOGNA

MOTORWAY A4

MOTORWAY A4

MOT

ORW

AYA1

3

DIRECTION TRIESTE

Regionedel Veneto


Dic

embr

e 20

06










Comunedi Este

Provinciadi Padova








How to reach Este:







The Castle


MOTORWAY EXITS

TOWNS

EUGANEAN HILLS

DIRECTION MILANO

VERONAAIRPORT

VENEZIAAIRPORT

TREVISOAIRPORT

DIRECTION BOLOGNA

MOTORWAY A4

MOTORWAY A4

MOT

ORW

AYA1

3

DIRECTION TRIESTE

Regionedel Veneto


Dic

embr

e 20

06










Comunedi Este

Provinciadi Padova








How to reach Este:







The Castle


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