When the building of the current Altinate Center was seriously damaged by the fire in 1920, an architect restored it and, according to the taste of the 1920s-1930s (the Fascist era), he stressed the 'Roman' elements of the old structure, and added a bit of geometrism.The so-called 'pit' you see here from the ground floor once was the pivot of the legal activity when the plece was a Court of Justice. From here corridors led to the offices and the court rooms. It's built remembering a Roman impluvium, with a sky roof from which rain water was collected into a tank. The name Altinate comes from the Roman Altinate Road on which the building lies, and the nearby Altinate Gate of the medieval walls. Both still survive. The road led to Altino, once a very important town, and from there to the eastern provinces of the empire. Altino is a village, nowadays, but it managed to survive. When the building was a convent, it got its name from St. Cajetan's church (San Gaetano). When Padova had to choose a new name for the new Urban Center last year, the Catholic bishop campaigned to restore the name of St. Cajetan, but a referendum chose Altinate, which reminds the multicultural civilizations of Rome and Venice. Thank you for your kind comments.