Overview
The abbey basilica of Santa Giustina has changed its appearance many times since the 5th century, when the first version of this church was built. At first, it was only a small oratory built on a necropolis, where St Justina Martyr had been buried, in an area outside the city threatened by the marshes of the lower Veneto region. It is hard to believe it when faced with the grandeur of the present-day basilica, 122 metres long and crowned by 8 domes, and the spacious elegance of the square that leads to it: Prato della Valle, a vast late-eighteenth-century space that includes a green islet surrounded by a canal and about eighty statues, dedicated to the illustrious men of Padua and its University.
From the 8th century, the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Giustina, to whom the church is still dedicated, grew up next to the basilica and houses an important library. After the earthquake that struck Veneto in 1117, the basilica was rebuilt in Romanesque style. It was rebuilt again, between 1532 and 1579, this time with monumental Renaissance forms, but the façade remained unfinished. Among the masterpieces of art housed there, the highlight is the rear altarpiece of the Martyrdom of St Justina by Paolo Veronese (from around 1575). Religious focal points include the ark of St Luke the Evangelist (1316), the ark of St Matthias the Apostle and the small shrine of St Prosdocimus, a remnant of the first early Christian complex, with a marble iconostasis from the 6th century.
The relics of St. Luke and St. Matthias and the connection with the figures of St. Justina and St. Prosdocimo make this basilica a key stop along the Romea Strata, the pilgrimage route that goes down to Rome from north-eastern Europe via Friuli and Veneto. Among the tombs of so many saints and blesseds, the tomb of the Venetian Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia is also worth a stop for (secular) veneration: she was the first woman to receive a university degree, in 1678.
