The Dream of Hercules in the Ancient Courtyard

21.12.2021

This year, during these festive days, there are no Christmas trees in the Ancient Courtyard of Palazzo Bo. Rather, the University of Padua presents the community with an installation that speaks of the journeys, discoveries, research, truths, limits, and knowledge. Of freedom.

Like the boundaries of the known World of Antiquity, the Pillars of Hercules are held in a mythical place such as the Journey of Ulysses, as evoked by Dante and imagined by Plato in his search for Atlantis, and overcome by Christopher Columbus as he sailed to the unexpected Americas they place men and women in front of their limitations of knowledge directing them towards the possibility of discovery including that for which they do not seek to explore the unknown and defy uncertainty in this place.

Under these pillars students and scholars have come from all over the world for eight hundred years to renew the search of boundaries tracing new and wider horizons for all to benefit in the name of freedom since 1222 freedom in science, in art and in culture.

The Dream of Hercules installation is on display in the Ancient Courtyard of Palazzo Bo from December 20 to January 9, illuminated daily from 5 pm to 11 pm.

Installation curated by: The Communication Office of the University of Padua (Communication and Marketing Area)

Voiced by: Vittorio Attene and Bruna Laura Filippini