The Patron
Sant'Antonio di Padova
Antonio di Padova is the patron, celebrated on 13 June. In Padova he is simply il Santo, and his basilica became one of the world's major pilgrimage churches.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Padova,
Veneto
A university city where parish registers and household rolls run side by side.
There is a source in the Veneto that most researchers never ask for, because they do not know it existed.
In the Regno Lombardo-Veneto there was also a civil population register — regulated by the Austrian legislator in 1833 as the ruolo della popolazione . It ran alongside the parish-kept civil status, and it is a different kind of record: households and residents rather than events.
But not every comune of the province kept it. Where it survives, it is the best Austrian-period source there is.
For the city itself, the Archivio di Stato di Padova holds the anagraphic documentation — anagrafe and ruolo di popolazione — produced by the Comune di Padova between 1806 and 1910 , with contemporary indexes.
The Records
Two Austrian record streams
During the Austrian period, vital registration belonged to parish priests while the ruolo della popolazione tracked households and residents. Where both survive, they provide complementary family evidence.
The Landmark
Basilica di Sant'Antonio
The Basilica di Sant'Antonio marks the city's principal devotion. For genealogy, its wider parish context must be considered alongside the separate municipal anagrafe and population-roll series.
Did you know?
HOUSEHOLDS AND EVENTS WERE RECORDED BY DIFFERENT OFFICES
Do not confuse anagrafe with stato civile
Padova's archival system distinguishes population registration from vital registration. For the Austrian decades, researchers may have parish births, marriages and deaths plus communal household rolls — but survival varies by comune.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
The local speech is Padovano, a central Venetian variety.
Search events and households separately
Padua's University was founded in 1222 by masters and students who left Bologna, and it became one of the great centres of European learning — Galileo taught here for eighteen years, Vesalius dissected here, and the anatomical theatre of 1594 is the oldest surviving in the world.
The city was a free commune with its own statutes, governed under the Carraresi until 1405 , when it passed to Venice and remained a mainland province of the Republic until 1797 . Its administrative structure survived from the communal period: the city was divided into quarters, centenari — groups of a hundred families — and contrade , and that division shapes the older records.
Under Napoleon it became part of the Dipartimento del Brenta , whose civil status the archive holds; under Austria it belonged to the Regno Lombardo-Veneto , which returned registration to the clergy while running its own population roll from 1833 .
The Archivio di Stato di Padova was instituted by ministerial decree of 19 July 1948 as a Section, gathering the fonds that had formed the Archivio civico antico — including the suppressed religious corporations and the tribunals — together with the notarial archive . It became a full State Archive under the decree of 30 September 1963 .
Its holdings run to roughly 84,500 units of bundles, volumes, registers and files, with 9,253 sheets and 45,142 parchments .
Among the deposited institutional archives are the Ospedale di San Francesco and the Ospedale civile , the Istituto degli esposti and the Istituto per l'infanzia abbandonata , the Provincia di Padova , and the Ospedale psichiatrico provinciale .
And one series reaches back before the French: the Coscrizione militare fond, 172 bundles and registers for 1806–1856 , covering the levies imposed under the Napoleonic and subsequent regimes.
Postcards from Padova
Wear Padova
WANT TO SEE PADOVA REPRESENTED?
Castellesi hasn't made anything for this place yet. Requests are how we decide which comuni come next — every one is read, and the places people ask for are the places that get made.
REQUEST PADOVA →Where this
belongs
belongs
PROVINCIA DI PADOVA
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Padova and its remarkable comuni.
REGIONE VENETO
From the mountains to the sea, Veneto is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE VENETO →From the passenger index
At least 195 people who gave Padova as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →Ready to visit
Giotto, a botanical garden of 1545, and seventy-eight statues
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Venice Marco Polo, Treviso, or Verona Airport, depending on the destination.
Padua is a university city with three UNESCO listings and far fewer visitors than it deserves.
Book well ahead for the Cappella degli Scrovegni , frescoed by Giotto between 1303 and 1305 — the cycle that changed European painting, and the centrepiece of the Padova Urbs picta listing of 2021 .
Then the Basilica di Sant'Antonio , begun in 1232 over the tomb of the saint this city calls simply il Santo — a devotion the emigrants carried to Brazil and Argentina.
Visit the Orto Botanico , founded in 1545 and the oldest university botanical garden in the world still on its original site.
Go into the Palazzo della Ragione , with its great keel roof, and buy something from the food shops trading beneath it as they always have.
At the University , see Galileo's lectern and the anatomical theatre of 1594 , the oldest surviving anywhere.
And walk round the Prato della Valle , laid out in 1775 — an ellipse ringed by a canal and seventy-eight statues, and among the largest squares in Europe.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
Austria ran a separate population roll from 1833 alongside the parish registers - and Padova holds the conscription records of Rovigo province as well as its own.
Archivio di Stato di Padova - ricerche genealogiche
Records that in the Regno Lombardo-Veneto there was also a civil population register, regulated by the Austrian legislator in 1833 as the ruolo della popolazione, though not all comuni of the province preserved it; that the Napoleonic communal civil status of 1806-1815 is held for the comuni listed in inventory no. 55; and that for those born or resident in the Comune di Padova the archive holds the anagrafe and ruolo di popolazione produced between 1806 and 1910 with contemporary indexes.
aspd.cultura.gov.itArchivio di Stato di Padova on Antenati
Lists the Stato civile del Dipartimento del Brenta for 1806-1815 covering the districts of Padova, Mirano, Noale, Camposampiero, Este, Piazzola, Teolo, Battaglia, Montagnana, Monselice, Conselve and Piove; the fogli di famiglia of 1806-1816 and 1869-1901 and parish registers of 1800-1880 in the old communal fond; directs searches for 1818-1870 in the rest of the province to the diocese and parishes; and gives the conscription holdings for both Padova and Rovigo.
antenati.cultura.gov.itArchivio di Stato di Padova - inventario 55
The finding aid for the Stato civile del Dipartimento del Brenta 1806-1815, noting that the documentation is described by district and comune and that numerous gaps are indicated, affecting the entire holdings of several comuni.
aspd.beniculturali.itArchivio di Stato di Padova - inventario 19
Explains that the archive's arrangement distinguishes series for the registry office and for the civil-status office, competences already identified in the Napoleonic age and kept distinct under Austria when the functions of civil-status officer were attributed to the parish priests.
archiviodistato.provincia.padova.itArchivio di Stato di Padova - aggiornamento della guida
Gives the consistency of the principal fonds, including Liste di Leva Padova in 277 bundles and 1,765 registers, Liste di Leva Rovigo in 154 bundles and 234 registers, Fogli matricolari Padova in 315 bundles, the Istituto Protezione Infanzia Abbandonata in 391 bundles and 182 registers, the Ospedale Psichiatrico in 905 bundles and the O.N.M.I. in 775 bundles.
aspd.cultura.gov.itRelated places
Keep exploring
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Padova is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →