Arquà Petrarca

The current residential nucleus of Arquà, derived from the Latin “Arquatum” or “Arquata,” which was later vulgarized to “Arquada,” refers to the village that still largely maintains its thirteenth-century appearance. In the last years of his life, it was inhabited by the poet Francesco Petrarch. The origins of Arquà are clearly medieval, and they can be traced back to the period when it was situated on a probable defensive line that may have existed as far back as the barbarian era. This line connected the fortress of Monselice, the center of the local Lombard political-administrative jurisdiction, with Valle S. Giorgio, Cinto Euganeo, and the flat area toward Vicenza, to the west of the hills.
Going further back in history, it is discovered that the territory of Arquà has very ancient origins. Near Lake della Costa, in the late 1800s, a prehistoric station dating back to the end of the Bronze Age was found, developed on the shores of the small lake on the border between the territories of Arquà and Monselice.
The territory of Arquà, after being inhabited by the ancient Veneti, was incorporated into the Tenth region during the time of Emperor Augustus. Indeed, there are numerous archaeological findings such as funerary steles, imperial coins, and water drainage conduits from this period.
In a document from 985, the presence of a castle inhabited by Rodolfo Normanno is attested in Arquà. It is precisely on the hill where the ancient castle stood (referred to as Monte Castello in memory of the now-vanished fortifications) that the original medieval nucleus can be located, from which the village later inhabited by Petrarch developed. During this period, the fame and Petrarchan fashion motivated several aristocratic Paduan and Venetian families (such as the Contarini, the Pisani, the Capodivacca, the Zabarella, etc.) to build noble residences. The village thus completed the urban layout that it still preserves today.