Palazzo della Ragione, Padua

This vast medieval hall in the centre of Padua once served as the city's court of justice and rises above the bustling market squares that still surround it. Its upper floor is a single enormous room roofed by a soaring wooden vault shaped like an inverted ship's hull, one of the largest such spaces from the Middle Ages. The walls carry a cycle of astrological frescoes linking the months, planets and saints. Beneath the hall, arcades shelter food shops that have traded here for centuries, tying the monument to the everyday life of the city.