In the post-war period, sanctioned by the signing of the Armistice on November 3, 1918, a historic event that took place within the walls of Villa Giusti, establishing the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian army and the Italianhood of Trent and Trieste, the University's role in the Padua territory changes again.

Its main constituent elements are celebration and commemoration. These are the two aspects that the Athenaeum identifies in the actions of students and professors who, enlisted mostly volunteers, carried on in the armed conflict against the enemy, and which are now considered as values to be honored and to exalt through the realization of a series of works, ceremonies and awards, such as the conferment of the honorary degree and the medal of valor.

The celebration of victory passes through the glorification of the "heroic sacrifice" of university students, in defense of their nation; a theme that is remembered and immortalized in the monument that visually opens our itinerary, the Doorway of the university building. It was born out of the need to create a monument commemorating the fallen, a desire felt strongly by both the University and the students, as evidenced by the Comitato per le onoranze agli studenti caduti in guerra:

The Doorway, as already mentioned, is not just a memento, but becomes a true symbol of the vital dialogue established between the university context, represented by the building's Ancient Courtyard, and the living urban fabric. An emblem both in the opening, when the doors open to view the columns and the inner loggia, and in the closing, where the doors show the pivot of this relationship: the consecration of fallen young men and a tribute of blood on which to ideally base postwar Padua.