It is a historical palace building dating back to the European Renaissance, and it has a unique architecture, where a rich collection of paintings and inscriptions adorn its interior surfaces, and many diverse sculptures and statues are distributed inside it. The palace has great historical importance in the city, and has been part of the University of Padua since 1493. It is the second oldest university in the world, and Galileo was one of its professors. It is the place where the first woman in the world obtained her degree in philosophy in 1678, a woman from Venice whose name was Elena Lucrezia. The building also houses the first permanent anatomical theater in Europe and the world.