Padua [antikvár]

Padua down the centuries. The three thousand years of Padua's existence can be divided into two periods, clearly distinguishable from each other by the two different names of the city: Patavium and Padua. Patavium, founded by the legendary hero Antenore, came into being in the X century B.C. as a humble agricultural village built of wood, on the place, then a marsh, where the future Town Hall was to stand. In the III cent. B.C. at the time of the «great Gallic war» (226-225), friendly and enduring relationships between the Veneti and the Romans began. Thanks to its favourable geographical position and the fine network of cross-country highways, Patavium was able to achieve an exceptional level of economic prosperity as a wool trade centre, even in the time of Augustus. Patavium alsó was a town where those who however embraced Christianity (St. Justina, 304 A.D.) underwent trial and martyrdom. At the time of the invasion of the Huns in 451 A.D. Patavium was scarcely touched; it was to receive its mor-