Church of Eremitani

The lovely Church of Eremitani rises in the homonym square in the city of Padua. It was built in honour of the Saints Filippo and Giacomo. The name "Eremitani" comes from the number of pilgrims that travelled and passed from the guest rooms of the annexed convent.

The building was built between 1276 and 1306, on ancient pre-existing structures, and designed by Fra' Giovanni of the Hermits, who also projected the ligneous ceiling.

It's a typical Franciscan church, in terms of simplicity necessary to hold down the costs, but you will find Gothic elements as well. The building, although subject to changes and renovations in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries - and even after the Second World War – preserves intact the charm of the fourteenth-century convent churches.

The façade dates back to 1360, and is divided into two parts. The lower one is made of stone, with four blind arches on either side of the central door; while the upper one is built in fired bricks, with pilasters, arches and a beautiful rose window. From the rear of the church, you will notice the splendid pictorial series in the Ovetari chapel, the apse, the sacristy and the bell tower, all Romanesque constructions. The church's interior is charming and really great. The only aisle is dominated by the timber ceiling (a carena di nave - 'like an upturned ship's hull'), while the side walls alternate bands of red and ochre bricks.

Near the entrance there are two tombs, sculpted by Andriolo de Santi: the left side one, tomb of Jacopo da Carrara, shows an inscription in Latin couplets, by Petrarca; the right one is the tomb of Ubaldino da Carrara. Further on you will find the Sacred Heart Chapel (Cappella del Sacro Cuore), decorated with precious frescoes by Giusto de' Menabuoi, representing the Virtues and the Liberal Arts, and then three chapels, with fragments of fourteenth-century frescoes, some of them painted by Guariento. In addition to the Cappella del Sacro Cuore, there are four important chapels:

• Cappella Ovetari, erected by Antonio Ovetari, with wall paintings commissioned by his wife. The frescoes were made by Giovanni d'Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini, Niccolò Pizzolo, Ansuino da Forlì and Andrea Mantegna, who was only seventeen years old. A bombing in March 1944 destroyed the chapel so that today we can only admire two works by Mantegna, preserved below the right wall. The Assunta (the Assumption) that is in the apse and the il Martirio di St Cristoforo (Martyrdom of St Christopher) were detached in the late nineteenth century, because already damaged, and fortunately escaped the bombs.
• Cappella Dotto, where there's trace of a fresco attributed to Altichiero.
• Cappella Maggiore, which coincided with the Presbytery, preserves what remains of the frescoes portraying the Histories of St Augustine, St Filippo and St Giacomo minore by Guariento, which also saw the collaboration Niccolò Semitecolo. The Crocifisso (crucifix) of 1370, painted in tempera on panel, is attributed to one of the two artists mentioned above. On the right, Cristo incorona la Vergine (Christ crowning the Virgin), by Guariento di Arpo. The presbytery also preserves the mausoleum of humanist-jurist Marco Mantova Benavides, a work by Ammannati (1546).
• Cappella Sanguinacci with the sarcophagus of Ilario Sanguinacci, one of the most successful works of the fourteenth-century sculptor Paolo Jacobello. At the top of the right wall there is a 'Madonna in trono col Bambino in piedi' (Madonna and Child standing), three saints on either side and an agent on his knees, attributed to Giusto de 'Menabuoi.

The sacristy preserves important works of art, like a fresco made by Altichiero da Zevio.