Discover Este

A concise introduction to Este, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

Este sits at the southern foot of the Euganean Hills, forty minutes from Padua, and it is far older than it looks. Before Rome this was a principal centre of the Veneti — the people who gave the region its name — and the archaeology from their cemeteries is what makes the town worth a journey.

Above the centre stand the walls and towers of the Carrarese castle of 1339, its interior now a public garden. And the place lent its name to the House of Este, which ruled Ferrara and Modena for centuries and married into half the dynasties of Europe.

Geography

Este stands where the southern cones of the Euganean Hills meet the flat Bassa Padovana, on a branch of the Adige that has since moved away — the shift that stranded the old town and prompted the castle above it.

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History

A principal settlement of the Veneti from the ninth century BC, Roman Ateste, and the town that gave its name to the House of Este. The Adige later shifted course and left it stranded, after which the Carraresi walled the hill above it in 1339 and Venice absorbed it in 1405.

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See Este through traveler photos →

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