From that moment the city shared the fortunes of the Venetian Republic, which strengthened and endowed the University 'Studio' making it a cultural centre at European level. Involved in the wars against the Emperor Maximilian who besieged it in 1509, but. who was chased out, Padua following this episode, was encircled by a new, strong, city earthworks, still in existence in part today, which will be, for the following centuries and up to the Second World War, the boundary of urban development. Inside, the city was ever enriched by public and private buildings: and if in order to enhance its presence, the Republic built the Loggia del Capitanio. restructured the Carrarese palace, built the Monte di Pieta' (the State pawn broker), the Paduan nobility was not far behind building brand new or remodernized palaces; the Church itself proceeded with imposing buildings such as the Cathedral (Duomo) or the Basilica of Saint Justinian. The rationalization of the territory proceeded parallel with the creation of villas, mostly property of Venetian nobility and, to a lesser degree, of Paduan nobles. Between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, thanks to the ardour of the cultural life and building contractors, important artists worked in the city: it is sufficient to mention Donatello, Mantegna, the Ammannati and Falconetto: the presence ofTitian at Saint Antonys and, during the Sixteenth Century, the work of Michelangelo for the reconstruction of the apse in the Cathedral. Contemporaneously, the University registered large numbers of foreign students, attracted by illustrious professors amongst whom were Coper- nicus, Fracastoro, Toscanelli as well as, Vesalio and Galileo, Bellarmino and so forth.
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