The Sophoras of Piazza Capitaniato

These two trees were planted in 1861, when Padua was still Austrian. Five years later Veneto voted itself into the new kingdom of Italy, and the pagoda trees of Piazza Capitaniato have stood through everything since, in a square that was already six centuries into its second career. It began as the courtyard of the Carrara family's 14th-century palace and belongs to the University of Padua now, fronted by the Palazzo del Capitanio, open on all sides and free to walk into at any hour. The register counts two trees. A visitor counts one planting. They stand about 20 metres apart on the square's axis, the larger 4.6 metres round and dated to that 1861 campaign, the second undated on the register and in better condition than its neighbour, which is why they are described here as one entry. Local history sources give the same planting year independently, and the arithmetic agrees. Styphnolobium japonicum reached Europe from China by way of Jesuit collectors, despite the name, and its trick is timing: it flowers in August, when almost nothing else in a city square is doing anything at all, dropping small cream flowers over the paving for weeks. Padua's students have walked through them on the way to lectures since before Italy existed.