Casa della Dogana

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Casa della Dogana (Customs House)
Via Euganea
Padua, May 2025

“Considered one of the most beautiful Romanesque houses in Padua, the so-called Palazzo della Dogana has been fully recovered through careful restoration. Built in 1294 near the medieval gate of San Giovanni delle Navi, under the podestà Nicolo Morosini, the Casa della Dogana had the important function of controlling traffic coming from Monselice. The building, which falls within the 13th-century typology of porticoed houses, is attributed to the architect Leonardo Zise Bocaleca from Monselice, who was also active at the time for the Municipality and for the Basilica Antoniana, who took inspiration, in the high portico, from the 13th-century structure of the Palazzo della Ragione. During the restoration of 1611, documented by the date inscribed on a window, the original mezzanine with wooden floors was replaced by a brick structure supported by a portico with lowered arches. Among the single-lancet windows on the first floor, an elegant double-lancet window stands out, closed by a relieving arch and decorated with a perforated pattern of small diamonds on the lintel. The motif, derived from the Tomb of Antenor, also by Bocaleca, is present in various private buildings from the second half of the thirteenth century. The façade towards Riviera San Benedetto is enriched by the coat of arms of the Municipality of Padua and that of the mayor Morosini.” (Casa della Dogana, ZonzoFox)