Palazzo Liviano is named after the great Roman historian Livy, who was born in Padua. Originally home to the Faculty of Arts, today it houses the School of Human, Social and Cultural Heritage Sciences and the Department of Cultural Heritage, as well as the Museum of Archaeological Sciences and Art.

Considered one of the greatest achievements in Padua University’s twentieth-century development, the building was designed by Gio Ponti in compliance with the requirements of the public tender, namely “to avoid imitation of past styles, but [to seek] a simple and balanced expression of modern art […]. The result must be luxurious, but with decoration whose lines and materials are strictly indispensable decorative elements”.

The Milanese architect not only designed the building but personally developed numerous furnishing elements such as benches, desks, chairs, and coatracks. Ponti’s Palazzo del Bo Rectorate work progressed seamlessly into Palazzo Liviano, achieving recognizably consistent complexes although they are physically separate.

The public competition for an artist to produce the large atrium fresco was won by Massimo Campìgli, who responded to the designated theme – continuity between Roman and modern culture – by proposing a depiction of archaeology as the bedrock of Italian culture, the heritage of scholars but equally of ordinary people.

Also worthy of note in the atrium is Arturo Martini’s 1942 statue of Livy. The Latin historian is portrayed bent over in thought: “a child who spent his life kneeling to write” was the artist’s definition.