Basilica of Saint Anthony Historical Timeline

Origins

Anthony died in 1231 at Arcella, just outside Padua, aged around 35. He was canonised in May 1232, and construction of a basilica to hold his body began almost immediately -- the speed of both events is the single most telling fact about how he was regarded.

Turning points

Building continued until about 1310, absorbing an earlier church dedicated to Santa Maria Mater Domini into its structure rather than replacing it. The long construction is why the building reads as several architectural ideas at once.

Influential people

Donatello worked here through the 1440s, producing the bronze figures for the high altar and, in the square outside, the equestrian monument to the mercenary commander Erasmo da Narni, known as Gattamelata -- completed in 1453 and the first large bronze equestrian statue cast in Europe since antiquity.

Cultural evolution

The basilica became one of Catholic Europe's principal pilgrimage destinations and has never stopped being one. Its administration was placed directly under the Holy See, which is why it is a pontifical basilica rather than a diocesan church -- Padua's actual cathedral is a separate building elsewhere in the city.

Present-day significance

Anthony is invoked as the finder of lost things, and the volume of written petitions left at the tomb is itself part of what visitors come to see. The basilica remains staffed by Franciscan friars and functions, above all, as a place people come to ask for something.