Scrovegni Chapel visitor guide — everything you need to know before visiting

At a glance

Ticket office

Musei Civici agli Eremitani, Piazza Eremitani 8, Padua

Open

Every day, 9:00–19:00; last day entry 18:45

Slot

15 minutes, up to 25 people

Visit

15 minutes in the waiting room, then 15 in the chapel

Arrive

At the ticket office at least 30 minutes before your slot

Closed

25–26 Dec, 1 Jan; 16–27 Nov 2026

On sale

Day slots up to 10 February 2027

Where the chapel is

The Scrovegni Chapel stands in the Arena gardens on the northern edge of Padua's old centre, on land beside the site of the city's Roman arena, which is why you will also hear it called the Arena Chapel. Enrico Scrovegni bought the land in 1300 and built his family chapel here beside his palace, which no longer stands.

You do not go straight to the chapel door. The ticket office is inside the Musei Civici agli Eremitani, at Piazza Eremitani 8, in the cloisters of the former convent of the Eremitani friars. From there it is about 100 metres through the gardens to the chapel and its glass entrance pavilion. Keep that short walk in mind when you plan your arrival, because your ticket is for a fixed 15-minute slot.

Why every visit is booked ahead

Advance booking is compulsory. The chapel admits a maximum of 25 people for each 15-minute slot, and that number includes any guide. Once a slot is full it cannot be booked, and online bookings close the day before your visit. There is no same-day online booking, so the day you arrive in Padua is too late to start.

The limit exists for the frescoes. Every visitor brings warmth and humidity into a small closed room, and the paintings are seven hundred years old. Keeping groups small and timed lets the chapel hold its air steady all day. For you it means a quiet room and a clear view of the walls, as long as you have a slot. Pick a time with some slack around it: the morning after an overnight journey, or straight off a train, is when plans slip.

The slot grid and the booking calendar

Day slots run every 15 minutes from 9:00 to the last entry at 18:45, every day of the year except the closures below. That is forty slots a day, each for up to 25 people.

The chapel opens its calendar in batches rather than a rolling window. The current batch went on sale on 24 September 2026 and runs to 10 February 2027. The date of the next release has not been published. In our calendar you can still pick a later date: it goes on our waiting list with no payment, and we write to you when it can be booked. The same applies to a date that is already fully booked. Evening visits, called Giotto sotto le stelle, run in some seasons on a separate ticket that covers the chapel only; we book the day slots.

Which fare to choose

Choose one fare per person. The adult fare is for visitors aged 18 and over. The 65+ fare is for citizens of EU countries who are over 65; bring an ID card or passport that shows your age and nationality. Visitors over 65 from outside the EU book the adult fare.

Young visitors aged 6 to 17 have their own fare. Students book the student fare with a valid student card, and that includes university students of any age and students of art academies. Staff can ask to see the document behind any reduced fare, so carry it on the day.

Children under 6 go free. Tell us their ages in the notes when you book and we add them to the booking at no charge. They still take one of the 25 places in the slot, which is why they need to be on the booking.

Collecting your ticket

Your e-ticket arrives by email once your slot is booked. On the day, go first to the ticket office at the entrance of the Musei Civici agli Eremitani, Piazza Eremitani 8, and collect your ticket there. Arrive at the ticket office at least 30 minutes before your slot; the chapel recommends 45 minutes for groups. For the first slot of the day at 9:00, the office asks visitors not to come before 8:30.

This is also where you leave your bags. Backpacks and bags go in the cloakroom or in the lockers, which measure 44 by 31 by 46 centimetres. Suitcases and trolleys are not allowed in the museum at all, so do not bring luggage on the day. Once you have your ticket and your hands are free, walk through the gardens to the chapel.

The fifteen minutes in the waiting room

Be at the chapel's entrance pavilion at least 5 minutes before the time on your ticket. This glass and steel building, installed beside the chapel in 2000, is where your group of up to 25 gathers to go in together. If you arrive after your slot has started, you will not be let in, and you would need to book and pay for another slot.

Inside the pavilion you wait for 15 minutes in a sealed room while the temperature and humidity you bring in from outside settle. The automatic doors open only once on the way in and once on the way out. Use the time to plan your fifteen minutes: decide which three or four scenes you want to find first, so you are not turning in circles once the inner doors open.

Fifteen minutes under the vault

Then the inner doors open and you have 15 minutes in the chapel itself. Most people stop just inside and look straight up: the barrel vault is a deep blue sky scattered with gold eight-pointed stars, with roundels of Christ, the Madonna and Child and the prophets. Behind you, over the door you came in by, is the Last Judgement.

Along the side walls the story runs in four tiers of panels, beginning on the top tier with Joachim and Anna and ending with Pentecost. Below them, the grey Vices face the Virtues across the nave. In the presbytery stands Giovanni Pisano's marble Madonna and Child between two angels. Fifteen minutes goes quickly. Choose five or six scenes and look at them properly rather than trying to read every panel.

What makes the frescoes special

Giotto painted the cycle in about two years, between 1303 and 1305, with a large workshop. The chapel was dedicated on the feast of the Annunciation in 1303 and consecrated in 1305. The operator's own description picks out two revolutions. The first is space: Giotto builds rooms, gates and hillsides with a depth that anticipates Renaissance perspective by a century. The second is people: his figures have weight and their feelings are legible.

Look for the tenderness of Joachim and Anna's kiss at the Golden Gate, and for the mothers weeping in the Massacre of the Innocents. In the Kiss of Judas, a crowd of torches and clubs closes around two faces almost touching. In the Lamentation, angels twist in the sky above the dead Christ. On the entrance wall, Enrico Scrovegni kneels in the Last Judgement and offers a model of his chapel.

The museums on the same ticket

Your day ticket also opens the Musei Civici Eremitani, in the cloisters of the old Eremitani convent right beside the ticket office. The complex holds the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art, and Giotto's painted Crucifix, which once hung in the chapel, is displayed there. The museums are open every day from 9:00 to 19:00.

From Tuesday to Sunday the ticket also includes Palazzo Zuckermann, a short walk away on Corso Garibaldi, with collections of applied and decorative arts and the Bottacin Museum of coins and medals. Palazzo Zuckermann is open from 10:00 to 19:00 and closed on Mondays that are not public holidays, which is why a Monday ticket covers the chapel and the Eremitani only. Most visitors see the chapel first and the museums afterwards, at their own pace.

Photos, bags and other house rules

You may take photographs in the chapel and the civic museums for personal, non-commercial use, as long as you use no flash or other lights, no tripod or other equipment, and do not touch what you are photographing. Phones should be on silent.

Animals, bags, food and drink are not allowed into the chapel. Leave backpacks and bags in the cloakroom or lockers at the ticket office first. Suitcases and trolleys are not allowed into the museum at all. If you are travelling between cities on the day of your visit, leave luggage at your hotel or at the station before you come. Dress is not regulated, but the waiting room and the chapel are kept cool and stable, so a light layer is welcome in summer as much as in winter.

Closures and changes

The chapel is open every day of the year except 25 December, 26 December and 1 January. In 2026 it is also closed from 16 to 27 November, when the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome carries out its yearly inspection of the state of the frescoes. Our booking calendar greys out all of these days.

Tickets are non-refundable and cannot be moved to another date or time once booked; that is the chapel's rule, and it applies to every fare. Check your slot against train times and opening hours before you pay. If you are not yet sure of your dates and the date you want is beyond the current release, our waiting list lets you hold it with no payment until the calendar opens.

Frequently asked questions