Curated Itinerary
Padua Rationalism RoadBook — Five Stops from Ponti’s Liviano to Rubano (1936–1952)
Padua’s rationalism is scattered rather than monumental, and it does not stop in 1943. Five stops over twelve kilometres. Quirino De Giorgio designed the Cinema Altino on Via Altinate between 1946 and 1952, in the years when his futurist signature settled into something calmer. Gio Ponti’s Palazzo Liviano, won in a 1934 competition and built between 1937 and 1943, is the humanities seat of the university on Piazza Capitaniato. The former Kofler works, which made perfume, powder and soap, left a streamline-moderne corner that gave its quarter a nickname. The church of the Holy Family, built in brick and Istrian stone between 1936 and 1940, serves the San Giuseppe district around it. The last stop leaves the city for Rubano, and one of the rural party houses De Giorgio built across the countryside in 1937–39. Stefano Vigolo tells the full story in a separate article.
Take this route into Google Maps
From Cinema Altino, Padua to Ex Casa del Fascio — Rubano (Quirino De Giorgio, 1937–1939), in the order we curated them.
➤ Turn on the navigator in Google MapsIt opens in the Google Maps app with every stop already loaded, in the order we put them in. From there the route is yours: pick how you travel — on foot, by bike, by public transport or by car — change where you start and where you end, drag the stops into a different order, and add places of your own along the way.
Five stops through interwar and post-war Padua: De Giorgio’s Cinema Altino, Gio Ponti’s Palazzo Liviano, the streamline corner of the former Kofler works, the Sacra Famiglia church and the ex Casa del Fascio of Rubano. Read the full story in the dedicated article Talc, Bricks and a Stone Slogan: A Padua Rationalism RoadBook (1936–1952), by Stefano Vigolo.
Step by step
Cinema Altino, Padua
Quirino De Giorgio designed the Cinema Altino on Via Altinate between 1946 and 1952, in the years when the architect’s futurist signature settled into a…
Palazzo Liviano — Gio Ponti University Building in Padova (1937–1943)
Palazzo Liviano is the humanities seat of the University of Padova on Piazza Capitaniato, designed by Gio Ponti after a 1934 competition and built between…
Ex Stabilimento Kofler — Padua’s Perfume and Talc Works
Padua: the streamline-moderne corner building of the former Kofler perfume, powder and soap works, which gave the San Giuseppe quarter its "Borgo…
Church of the Holy Family — Padua, San Giuseppe Quarter (1936–1940)
Padua (1936–1940): the parish church of the San Giuseppe quarter, brick and Istrian stone with a great circular relief of the Holy Family set into the gable.
Ex Casa del Fascio — Rubano (Quirino De Giorgio, 1937–1939)
Rubano (1937–1939): one of the rural party houses Quirino De Giorgio built across the Padua countryside, a brick block that still carries its stone…
Download for tour navigation
PDF is the stop list with GPS, to print or keep on the phone. GPX for Garmin / Komoot / OsmAnd. KML for Google Earth and Maps.
Walk it with the navigator on
It opens in the Google Maps app with every stop already loaded, in the order we put them in. From there the route is yours: pick how you travel — on foot, by bike, by public transport or by car — change where you start and where you end, drag the stops into a different order, and add places of your own along the way.
To keep the route in the app instead of opening it once, download the KML above and import it into Google My Maps — Create a new map, then Import: the route then sits among your own maps in Google Maps, with the stops and our notes attached to each one.