Padua Cathedral and Baptistery Historical Timeline

Origins

A cathedral has stood on this site since at least the 4th century, rebuilt after earthquake damage in the 12th. The baptistery next to it went up in the 12th century as a plain Romanesque brick octagon.

Turning points

Between 1375 and 1378 Fina Buzzaccarini, wife of the Carraresi lord Francesco I, commissioned Giusto de' Menabuoi to fresco the baptistery's entire interior and intended it as the family's funerary chapel. She is buried there.

Influential people

The cathedral itself was rebuilt from 1552 on a design that drew on drawings supplied by Michelangelo, though what was actually built departed from them considerably as the work dragged across two centuries and several architects.

Cultural evolution

The facade was never completed. The brick stands raw, which is common enough in Italy -- money ran out -- but unusually conspicuous here because the building is otherwise large and formal.

Present-day significance

The cathedral remains the seat of the bishop of Padua and is in ordinary parish use. The baptistery is run as a ticketed monument and, since the 2021 inscription, receives noticeably more attention than it did.