Prato della Valle with tourists

Prato della Valle with tourists in Padua on 13 October 2021. Prato della Valle, one of the symbols of Padua, is a large elliptical square which, in addition to being the largest square in Padua, is one of the largest in Europe (88620 square meters), second only to the Red Square in Moscow. The square is actually a large monumental space characterized by a central green island, called Isola Memmia, in honor of the mayor who commissioned the work, surrounded by a canal decorated with a double base of numbered statues of famous characters of the past which according to the original project had to be 88. Today we can see, however, only 78 statues with 8 pedestals surmounted by obelisks and 2 empty ones. Four avenues cross the Prato on small bridges, and then meet in the center of the islet. The arrangement is inspired by the great Venetian tradition of the patrician garden; here for the first time this was diverted from private use and proposed, according to neoclassical concepts, as an urban solution and environmental qualification.