The Magnolia of the Saint

The cloister is named after the tree. The Chiostro della Magnolia is the first courtyard of the Basilica di Sant'Antonio, the 13th-century pilgrimage church that has drawn visitors to Padua for 800 years, and the magnolia at its centre was planted in 1810 according to the Basilica's own account. That makes it about 215 years old, 25 metres tall and 4.4 metres round, listed on Italy's national register of monumental trees under its own code. What makes it worth the ticket is the habit. The branches leave the trunk low and several of them rest on the ground, so instead of a column with a crown on top you get a green room with walls, filling most of the courtyard. The tree went in while northern Italy was still being fought over by France and Austria, and it has grown in the same enclosed square of air ever since, sheltered on four sides by stone, which is roughly why a magnolia from Georgia and Florida has done so well this far north. Do not confuse it with the 1786 magnolia in the Orto Botanico, 300 metres south. Padua has three well-known magnolias carrying three different dates and the sources muddle them regularly. This is the one inside the Basilica's museum complex, reached on the combined ticket, and closed on Mondays.