Basilica of Sant Antonio

Pontifical Basilica Begun In 1232 Over The Tomb Of Anthony Of Padua, One Of The Busiest Pilgrimage Churches In The Catholic World, With Donatello Bronzes On The High Altar · Padua, Veneto

One of the busiest pilgrimage churches in the Catholic world, taking millions of visitors a year, and a genuinely strange building: eight domes, two minaret-like bell towers and a Byzantine silhouette grafted onto a Gothic body, because it was begun in 1232 and finished over a century by people who kept changing their minds. Padovans call it simply il Santo. Inside, the saint's tomb is behind a wall of marble reliefs that people queue to press a hand against, and a separate chapel holds relics including his tongue and vocal cords, displayed because they were found uncorrupted when the body was moved. Donatello did the high altar bronzes and the equestrian Gattamelata standing in the square outside, which is the first large bronze horse cast in Europe since antiquity. Entry is free, dress is enforced at the door, and the cloisters beside it are the quiet part nobody goes into. Come early on a weekday, because a church taking this many pilgrims is a different place by noon.

Piazza del Santo 11, Padua, Veneto, 35123, Italy

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: the basilica opens daily and FREE from early morning to evening, with shorter winter hours and a possible midday narrowing, and closes parts of itself around frequent services. The cloisters and museums keep shorter hours. The Oratory of St George and the Scuola del Santo have their own ticketed hours with a weekly closure. THE FEAST OF ST ANTHONY IS 13 JUNE and dominates the calendar. The Scrovegni Chapel is a separate timed booking made weeks ahead.

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