Santa Caterina d'Alessandria is a small,

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

-style,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church and convent located on via Cesare Battisti #245 in the city of

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

in the region of

Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

, Italy.

History

A church was present here by the 13th century.

Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine, was, according to tradition, a Christian saint and Virginity, virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a ...

was considered one of the patron saints of the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

. By the 14th century, a student college was founded here. A nobleman of Padua, Jacopo D'Arqua, endowed the construction in 1594. The parish was suppressed in 1610 and the college converted into an Augustinian monastery for nuns who tended to poor women who lived on the margins of society. Built with the typical layout of a thirteenth-century oratory, in the 17th century it was renovated and decorated in Baroque style. A baptismal font used to baptize Livia and Gianvincenzo, children of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

was moved to

Santa Sofia, Padua Santa Sofia is the oldest Roman Catholic church structure in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. It was built in the 10th century on the site of a presumed Mithraeum. A grant was made to bishop Sinibaldo of this church in 1123, which had ...

. The altar has polychrome marble with columns and a tympanum surmounted by sculptures, completed by a sculptor of the Bonazza family, as well as Giordano and Damini. The main altarpiece in the 19th century depicted the ''Mystical Marriage of St Catherine'' by Marcantonio Bonaccorsi. The church also had a canvas depicting the ''Annunciation'' (1718) by Bartolomeo Moro. The frescoes on the walls date back to the previous structure and date from the 13th to the 16th century."Chiesa di Santa Caterina", Comune di Padova
/ref> The violinist

Giuseppe Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in Pirano in the Republic of Venice (now Piran, Slovenia). Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the ...

was buried here in 1770. Severely damaged by an earthquake in 1976, the church was restored by 2016. The organ dates back to the mid-18th century. It was moved here in 1844 from the Church of San Paolo near the Ponte Molino. It was restored in 2005. The church is used by the

for various celebrations in conjunction with the Catholic student center."Diocesi: Padova, il Centro universitario in festa per santa Caterina d’Alessandria", Società per l’Informazione Religiosa, 24 Novembre 2022
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caternina Padua Roman Catholic churches in Padua Baroque architecture in Veneto 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Magdalene asylums

History

See also

References