Loggia dei Vicari

The Loggia dei Vicari is an arched hall on the upper square of Arquà Petrarca. For centuries it served as a civic centre where local representatives met the vicar who governed the district for Padua and later Venice.

Why it matters

The loggia preserves the political history of the settlement. The vicar administered justice, finances and defence, while local assemblies met in the hall. Arquà rose to the rank of vicaria in the fourteenth century, and the district later encompassed twenty-one villages.

What to notice

The open stone arches give the hall a restrained civic character. Above the entrance is a sandstone relief of the Lion of Saint Mark, carved in the sixteenth century. The interior preserves coats of arms associated with vicars' families and a deteriorated fresco of Saint Julian. A copper-and-glass roof, added during the 2003 restoration, shelters the medieval walls.

Context and history

The neighbouring complex became the seat of the Vicarìa in the thirteenth century. The loggia's original timber-and-thatch roof was lost in a fire in 1828, leaving the hall roofless until the municipal restoration of 2003, led by architects Claudio Rebeschini and Andrea Schiavon. The contemporary roof makes the restoration visible while retaining the historic civic structure.