Recognised in Italy as an indigenous Italian breed, the Padovana or Padovana dal gran ciuffo (Gallus gallus domesticus) is an ancient breed of small crested and bearded chicken from the city and surrounding province of Padova, in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy, from which it takes its name. There is evidence of crested chickens in Europe in Roman times. Early iconographic evidence of the breed in Padova is the fresco of the Annunciation by Jacopo da Verona, painted in 1397 in the Oratorio di San Michele Arcangelo (oratory of Saint Michael) in Padova, which shows a peasant woman feeding a crested hen and her chicks.
