Tony's Place

When we couldn't get into the place we really wanted to go in Padua, we headed for the south side of the city to the Basilica of St. Anthony (more on my failure later, or better yet "moron my failure").

Built in the 1200s and dedicated to Friar Anthony, who was sainted in less than a year after his death, the basilica has a striking red brick facade.  It apparently one of the most important pilgrimage sites to Catholics.  

The church has any number of features, which I would be delighted to show you, but photography is not allowed inside.  As someone who likes taking photos, it always frosts my hide that a handful of places in Europe don't allow photography.  I'm all for not using flash -- I can only think of a handful of pictures out of the thousands I've taken that I wish flash were allowed.  But when plenty of places built in the same timeframe allow photography, only to be told at one random place you can't take photos, well that makes no sense.

(Editor:  Rant over?  Writer: I don't know yet.  Keep reading and we'll see what happens.)

Of course, people were taking iPhone photos, so after a bit I pulled out my iPhone and took some surreptitious photos, and then got bolder and bolder.  The iPhone is no match for my Canon, but at least there is something.

Anyhow, back to the church.  It is famous for having a Donatello crucifix at the altar, a Donatello equestrian statue of a Venetian general, Gattamelata, St. Anthony's tomb, and Tony's tongue.  Yes, I said his tongue.  It has somehow survived despite rest of his body turning to dust. 

By the way, the remarkable thing about the "general on a horse" on a horse is not that his name, Gattamelata, sounds like an Italian Super Tuscan wine, but that is was first life-sized equestrian statue cast from bronze in a thousand years.  

And for our visit, of course, the statue is under wraps, being cleaned or whatever statues have done.  Oh well.

Anthony's tomb is set in a beautiful side chapel with nine marble reliefs that I wish I could have taken photos of (Editor: Still bitter eh.)  

Then you join the line in the original chapel where Tony was first buried (Editor: What, you're on a nickname basis with him? Writer: Hey, I grew up in New Jersey.  Of course I knew kids named Anthony who went by Tony!)

There are beautiful frescos in the original chapel, but the next chapel, the Chapel of the Reliquaries, is the main attraction, especially because of the tongue.  His original wooden coffin is there as well, and his lower jaw, which somehow remained intact with a full set of lower teeth.  His vocal chords also survived intact somehow, but WEREN'T NOTICED UNTIL THE REMAINS WERE EXAMINED IN 1981!  Remember, he died in 1263.  That's 718 years later!

(Editor: Did you really need to put that in ALL CAPS.  Writer: Well, now that you put it that way, yes!)

One of the photos I was allowed

to take.  You know, outdoors.

The famed Magnolia Cloistet.  The magnolia

tree you see part of was planted in 1810.

Not a typical tower

for a basilica.

Chapel of the Reliquaries.  The

thin glass case holds his tongue,

his lower jaw, and his vocal

chords.

Part of the ceiling in the

chapel with Tony's tomb.

The ceiling is from

the 16th century. 

A cherubic face.

One of the dome ceiling.

A "hallway."

Anthony's tongue is in the taller

piece, while his vocal chords

are in the lower part. . .after

being discovered in 1981!

Not his head, just some

random part of a work of art.

Obligatory Cloister selfie.  For our money,

Portugal has the best cloisters, with

Spain in second place, not that you asked.