Lying at the foot of the Euganean Hills, Este was the main settlement of the ancient Veneti who inhabited it as early as the Iron Age. An important Roman colony founded by veterans of Augustus, around the middle of the 11th century the city was chosen as the home of a feudal dynasty. Of the imposing medieval fortress, built by the Este family and enlarged by the Carraresi, the walls with a perimeter over a kilometre long remain today. The two remaining maistre towers enclose a splendid public garden.
Palazzo Mocenigo houses the Atestino National Museum, one of the most important in Italy for its pre-Roman collections. The approximately four centuries of Venetian rule can be read by admiring the remains of the perimeter that enclosed the town, the palaces in the central Piazza Maggiore and the villas. Among the many religious buildings is the Cathedral of Santa Tecla, which houses the uncorrupted body of Blessed Beatrice d’Este and Tiepolo’s grandiose altarpiece depicting Santa Tecla interceding to free the city from the plague. Also worth a visit are the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, built to house an icon of the Cretan-Byzantine school considered miraculous, and the Church of the Beata Vergine della Salute, a treasure trove of masterpieces by Antonio Zanchi.
Today the city of Este is still a centre for the production of high quality artistic ceramics, the manufacture of which has continued almost uninterruptedly from prehistoric times to the present day.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.veneto.eu
We recommend:
Este Ceramiche Porcellane – factory store: via Zanchi 22/A, 35042 Este PD (www.esteceramiche.com)
