The proclamation took place during the 44th extended session of the World Heritage Committee, scheduled until July 27 in Fuzhou, China, with the remote participation of delegations from 192 countries and global streaming coverage of the event.
While Montecatini Terme has been included in the circuit of the "Great Spas of Europe". as part of a bid promoted by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Republic, as well as Italy.
Padova Urbs picta's candidacy was the only one presented by Italy for 2020. The inscription on the World Heritage List comes this year, after the 2020 UNESCO Committee session was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Padua has proposed inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List a "serial site" which includes all the precious and large fresco cycles of the fourteenth century preserved in eight buildings and monumental complexes of the city: the Scrovegni Chapel, the Church of Saints Philip and James to the Eremitani, the Palazzo della Ragione, the Chapel of the Reggia Carrarese, the Baptistery of the Cathedral, the Basilica and Convent of Sant'Antonio, the Oratory of San Giorgio and the Oratory of San Michele. During the XNUMXth century, some of the most extraordinary artists of the time frescoed the walls of these places: Giotto, who created his absolute masterpiece with the frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel, Guariento di Arpo, Giusto de' Menabuoi, Altichiero da Zevio, Jacopo Avanzi and Jacopo da Verona.
And it was Giotto himself who, when he arrived in Padua around 1302, brought a new artistic language to the city from which an extraordinary season of culture and art developed which would continue throughout the fourteenth century. The great Paduan fresco cycles of the fourteenth century represent a unique example of the world of a system of outstanding universal value – outstanding universalvalue to use the UNESCO terminology – for their historical-artistic relevance, for their size (over 3600 mXNUMX of wall paintings), because within a defined area, i.e. the historic center of Padua, in a territorial context in which the painted wall tradition has been documented since the XNUMXth century.
The frescoes in these eight places, distant from each other a few hundred meters and which therefore make up an itinerary in the heart of the medieval city that can be traveled on foot, they also offer unique visions to those who are not connoisseurs of art history: thanks to Giotto, feelings and emotions are represented for the first time in the frescoes. In the Scrovegni Chapel we have the first pictorial representation of a kiss, the kiss between Joachim and Anna at the gate of Jerusalem, and equally surprising is the tear that lines the face of a woman in the scene of the Massacre of the Innocents. In Padua in about 90 years ranging from 1305 to 1397 it takes place a revolution in figurative art which, in addition to the representation of feelings, is based on a rediscovery of the fresco technique, an innovative use of color and the invention of perspective which will then be perfected in the following centuries.
Il The Municipality of Padua is the leader of the nomination committee, made up of the other three owners of the buildings and monumental complexes that preserve the frescoed cycles – Galileian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts; Basilica and Convent of Sant'Antonio; Pontifical Delegation and Veneranda Ark of the Saint; Diocese of Padua - with the Veneto Region and the scientific consultancy of the Ministry of Culture through the Unesco Office and the Superintendence of Archology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan area of Venice and the provinces of Belluno Padua and Treviso as well as the University of Padua.
This commitment, which began in 1996, yielded a first result, in 2018 when Padova Urbs picta was designated by the Italian National Commission for UNESCO as an Italian candidate for the World Heritage List for 2020.
ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), without raising any objection, last May gave even more significant strength to the candidacy, proposing that the fresco cycles of the fourteenth century be directly inscribed in the World Heritage List and indicating the specific criterion for inscription .
Padua is also present with another site, in fact since 1997, in fact the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua is a UNESCO site. Created in 1545, it is in fact the oldest vegetable garden in the Western world to still retain the shape and location of its origins, having kept its cultural and scientific mission intact for more than five centuries.
