Abano Terme
Abano Terme is a town and comune in the Province of Padua, in the Veneto region, Italy, on the eastern slope of the Euganean Hills; it is southwest by rail from Padua. Abano Terme's population is 19,062 .
The town's hot springs and mud baths are an important economic resource. The waters have a temperature of about.
History
The baths were known to the Romans as Aponi fons or Aquae Patavinae. A description of them is given in a letter to Theodoric, the king of the Ostrogoths, from Cassiodorus. Some remains of the ancient baths have been discovered. An oracle of Geryon lay near, and the so-called sortes Praenestinae, small bronze cylinders inscribed, and used as oracles, were perhaps found here in the 16th century.The baths were destroyed by the Lombards in the 6th century, but they were rebuilt and enlarged when Abano became an autonomous comune in the 12th century and, again, in the late 14th century. The city was under the Republic of Venice from 1405 to 1797.
Main sights
- Abano Cathedral, or the cathedral of St. Lawrence. The current edifice was erected in 1780 over a pre-existing church which was allegedly destroyed by Cangrande della Scala. The bell tower has parts from the 9th/10th and 14th centuries.
- The Montirone Gallery, housing works of Il Moretto, Palma il Giovane, Guido Reni, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and others.
- The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Salute or of Monteortone. It lies on the site where the Madonna appeared to Pietro Falco, healing his wounds. The church is on the Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles with three apses decorated by a frieze. It has with a Baroque portal, a bell tower, presbytery frescoes portraying the Histories of St. Peter and Virgin by Jacopo da Montagnana and Palma il Giovane's altarpiece depicting Christ Crucifixed Between St. Augustine and St. Jerome.
People
- Pietro d'Abano, Italian physician and philosopher
- Matteo Meneghello, Italian racing driver
Twin towns
- Shibukawa, Japan
- Bad Füssing, Germany
- Lipik, Croatia
- Kamena Vourla, Greece