Discover what to do in Sant’Urbano in Province of Padua: the CampEquestre festival, the church of Sant’Urbano Papa, Villa Nani Loredan, and the Rotta Sabbatina sluices. Want to know more? First of all…
Where is Sant’Urbano?
The municipality of Sant’Urbano borders north east with Villa Estense, north west with Vighizzolo d’Este, south east with Lusia, south west with Lendinara, east with Vescovana and Barbona, and west with Piacenza d’Adige.
The CampEquestre festival
The CampEquestre festival takes place every year in May in Carmignano di Sant’Urbano. The 2023 edition was held on Sunday, May 28.
Organized by Centro Equestre il Salice, the event features breathtaking equestrian displays, horse-related games to help children become familiar with this majestic animal, as well as Horse-Ball demonstrations.
Born in the 1930s, Horse-Ball is an equestrian team sport in which players, using only their hands and feet, aim to send a ball with six leather handles into a net raised one meter above the ground.
What makes the game even more thrilling and challenging is the rule that, if the ball touches the ground, the challengers must manage to pick it up without dismounting.
This dynamic sport requires a high level of skill, concentration and, of course, respect and love for the animal, essential aspects that animate the entire event.
If you’re wondering what to do in Sant’Urbano and want to spend the spring season in a lovely rural town in the Lower Padua area, this exciting event offers engaging equestrian performances, country dance and music shows, riding lessons, as well as dining areas where you can enjoy local specialties.
For more information about the event, you can visit the Facebook pages Pro Loco Sant’urbano and Centro Equestre Il Salice.
The church of Sant’Urbano Papa
Located at Via Chiesa, 10, the church of Sant’Urbano Papa is a charming neo-Gothic church built at the beginning of the 20th century.
Rhythmically marked by brick bands alternating with plastered bands, the gabled façade of the place of worship is divided by six exposed-brick pilasters connected by an ornamental motif of blind arches. Above the imposing wooden portal opens a pristine rose window with twelve rays.
Enhanced at the top by a series of round-arched blind arcades, the side walls alternate between exposed brick and stone bands.
Lit by splayed single-lancet windows with pointed arches opening onto the side walls, the bright nave is enriched by altars in polychrome marble and a splendid golden cross placed in the apse.
Villa Nani Loredan
Located in Via Priula, 2, Villa Nani Loredan is harmoniously set along the southern edge of a lovely rectangular garden, framed by lush hedges of shrubs and tall trees.
Partly hidden by the dense vegetation of black locusts, tree of heaven and paper mulberries, the south façade of the Renaissance palace features, on the main floor, an elegant three-light window made up of a central single opening, adorned with a projecting balcony and crowned by a lunette window, flanked by two lintelled windows topped by two small square windows.
If you’re wondering what to do in Sant’Urbano, Villa Nani Loredan is one of the municipality’s most splendid architectural landmarks.
Rotta Sabbatina
Located in Via Rotella, 5, 35040 Foscarina (PD), the Rotta Sabbatina sluices are a fascinating piece of hydraulic engineering built at the beginning of the 16th century to regulate the flow of the Adige River. The structure was built at the Rotella canal, a river communication route now abandoned, which allowed access to the Euganean Hills and Padua.
Surrounded by cypresses, tree of heaven, willows, Atlas cedars and dense clumps of common reeds, the brick structure looks like a massive bridge beneath which three round-arched openings topped by a lowered arch open up.
In 1513, during the War of Cambrai (1508 -1516), the Republic of Venice decided to flood the Adige River in order to inundate the countryside and thus hinder the advance of the armies of the powers that had aligned themselves against Venice.
