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Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and it is one of Italy’s major cultural cities with its own special vibe under the arcades for which the city is so famous, they are all over the city center. Street after street you can walk in archways; for example to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca church, where there are 666 arches on the way.
Bologna has nurtured great artists through time, and is home to Europe’s oldest university. The campus houses a special atmosphere in the city and is host of interesting museums – all within walking distance of the cozy inner city.
The city center is located around beautiful Piazza Maggiore, which dates back hundreds of years. The Town Hall and the colossal church of San Petronio are just two examples of magnificent buildings here; they stand as a testimony to the rich and prosperous history of Bologna, which is also emphasized by a multitude of other churches and fine mansions.
Not far from Piazza Maggiore you can see the Due Torri, two of the towers erected in the Middle Ages as status symbols and defenses of rival families. They tell a significant part of Bologna’s history and the people who characterized it.
The scenery around Bologna is beautiful and you can easily visit several different cultural cities, the mountain state of San Marino or the Italian Adriatic coast. Florence is a top destination for many travelers, but cities like Ravenna and Ferrara are also great choices close to Bologna.
This palazzo was built around the year 1200 as the seat of the city’s administration and mayor, and hence the name podestà. Two access roads cut through the building, where there were originally trade stalls; it is the so-called Voltone del Podestà, where statues of Bologna’s four patron saints were installed in 1525; Saint Petronius, Saint Proculus, Saint Dominic and Saint Francis. The statues were prepared by Alfonso Lombardi.
Originally the Palazzo del Podestà had a different facade, but in 1453 Aristotile Fioravanti changed it to the Renaissance of the time. Later, frescoes were added, which show major events in the city’s development from the Etruscan foundation to recent times. The frescoes were painted by Adolfo de Carolis at the beginning of the 20th century. They are found today in a special room and therefore not in their original locations.
Despite its grand and majestic size in Bologna’s central square, the Palazzo del Podestà soon became too small to house the city’s administration, and so the extension Re Enzo was founded in 1245.
The square Piazza Maggiore is the center of Bologna and the place where a number of major sights can be found. The square was originally laid out around the year 1200 as a market square, and it is considered one of the most beautiful in Italy.
Around Piazza Maggiore, one beautiful building rises up after another, and each house is an experience in itself. Among other things, you can see the Biblioteca Salaborsa, the city’s town hall and the mighty Basilica de San Petronio.
Due Torri are two famous medieval towers that stand in Piazza Porta Ravegnana. They are visible from a long distance and are today two of Bologna’s landmarks. The towers are among the few remaining of approximately 180 towers that the city’s rich families had built over time. The many towers functioned as part of the city’s defense, but they were also built as prestige buildings by the builders, who could use it to show their wealth and compete with other families.
The 97 meter high Torre degli Asinelli was built in 1119. Access to the top is via a staircase that winds around the inside of the high walls. After the tour, you will be rewarded with a wonderful view of the center of Bologna.
The neighboring tower is called Torre Garrisendi, and it is 48 meters high. In competition with the Asinelli family, Garisendi built the tallest tower, but the top several meters collapsed and due to the tower’s slope, construction was not resumed.
Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Pietro is Bologna’s cathedral, and has been since 1582, when Pope Gregorio XIII made it the seat of an archbishop. The history of the church itself goes back to at least the 9th century, but the current church is newer. The church at the time was destroyed by fire in 1141, and Saint Peter’s Cathedral was re-consecrated by Pope Lucius III in 1184 after a reconstruction.
Despite the dedication, the cathedral was not finished in the 12th century, but was instead rebuilt and expanded over the following centuries. Among other things, there was a partial collapse of the church in 1599, and therefore a major reconstruction began from 1605. The great cathedral also got a new facade between 1743 and 1747, and at intervals the church space has been decorated.
The interior stands with majestic grandeur in an impression from the Baroque. You can see beautiful works by, among others, Ludovico Carracci and Alfonso Lombardi, and Cesare Mauro Trebbi decorated the apse in the early 1900s. In the rear part of the building you can see the cathedral’s campanile, which with a height of 70 meters is one of the highest towers in Bologna. La Nonna, weighing 3,300 kilos, hangs in the tower like one of the cathedral’s bells.
Madonna di San Luca is a church whose roots go back over a thousand years. It is a place of pilgrimage, and already the first church building was built to house a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.
The current church building on top of the 298 meter high mountain was built from 1723 according to Carlo Francesco Dotti’s drawings. You can see the knowledge of it, and from here there is also a fine view of the mountains and nature around Bologna. The interior of the church is, like the church, very elegant, and centrally hangs the icon of the Virgin, to which there is an access road around.
As in large parts of the center of Bologna, arcades have been built on the road to the church. There are no less than approximately four kilometers of archways that lead from the town to the church, and this is done through the so-called Portico di San Luca, which consists of a total of 666 arches. The arcade was built in the years 1674-1793, and the reason was to be able to carry the church’s icon in dry weather during processions.
There are several highlights along the way. The starting point opposite Porta Saragozza (Piazza di Porta Saragozza) is an impressive portal building, and equally impressive is the building that marks the start of the ascent towards the church itself on the mountaintop. The end of the arcades ends at one side of the church itself.
Fontana del Nettuno is a monumental fountain sculpture that stands in Piazza del Nettuno in the heart of Bologna. The sculpture was prepared 1563-1566 after Tommaso Laureti’s drawings by the Flemish sculptor Giambologna in a Mannerist style that followed the High Renaissance throughout the 16th century.
The statue was erected by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo on the occasion that Borromeo’s uncle had been elected as Pope Pius IV. To make room for the statue, a building was demolished, and today the Fontana del Nettuno stands in a central square in the city as one of Bologna’s landmarks.
On the statue, Neptune is seen with a trident, which was the inspiration for the Maserati brothers’ logo starting with the Maserati Tipo 26, which was the brothers’ first car. Neptune stands on a base with inscriptions and decorations such as allegorical representations of the Danube, Nile, Ganges and Amazon rivers.
Casa Isolani is an old town house that stands as an example of 13th-century buildings in Bologna. Throughout the Middle Ages and later Bologna, there was a requirement that houses should be built with arcades, so that there was coherence through all the city’s houses. This was also true of Casa Isolani, where you can see the nine meter high oak beams that supported the arcades of the time.
In addition to the characteristic structure, Casa Isolani also stands as a rarely preserved example of civil buildings from the 13th century. The appearance today, however, comes from a restoration from the 19th century, where, among other things, two brick columns were inserted next to the original wooden columns. Through the main entrance you can walk through several small courtyards to Piazza Santo Stefano.
The impressive Basilica di San Petronio is one of Italy’s largest church buildings and is the most important in Bologna. The original plans even outlined the construction of an even larger church than the one that was built. In fact, the church should have been the country’s largest, but money was transferred to the construction of the nearby Palazzo Archiginnasio, and then the Basilica di San Petronio had to be saved.
The church was built over four centuries, from 1390-1659. The beautiful and simple entrance facade was done by Jacopo della Quercia in 1425-1438, and here you can see a number of biblical motifs.
The mighty church room was built in the Gothic style, and it is worth seeing it and also the many small and amazingly beautiful chapels, each of which was decorated differently and in varying styles. In total, there are more than 20 chapels in the church. Among those buried is Napoleon’s sister, Elise Bonaparte, who lived in Bologna.
The church’s stained glass windows are by the artist Jacob of Ulm and executed in 1464-1466. The altarpiece shows the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and it is a work from the so-called Ferrero school. You can also see Giovanni Domenico Cassini’s sundial, which was installed in the floor in 1655.
For a time in the middle of the 16th century, the church was home to the Catholic Church’s Tridentine Council, which had to assess reforms that could re-establish the Catholic Church’s rule over the breakaway Lutherans. The location of that event was a sign of Bologna’s wealth and strength.
Accursio Palace is also known as Palazzo Comunale, and it has been Bologna’s town hall for centuries. It was built on the west side of Piazza Maggiore from the 13th century and its completion lasted until the middle of the 15th century.
A tower was erected on the Palazzo d’Accursio as early as the 13th century. After a later increase in height, the town hall’s large tower clock was installed in the 15th century. Above the entrance to the town hall, in the portal you can see a work in bronze depicting Pope Gregory XIII, who came from Bologna.
Inside you can see the Red Hall/Sala Rossa, which is the city council’s meeting room, and on the 2nd floor of the town hall there is a museum with Giorgio Morandi’s works of art; Museo Morandi. There is also an art museum here, the Musei Civici d’Arte Antica.
A special event has taken place in the hall Sala Farnese. The current interior of the room dates from 1665 and was made by Cardinal Girolamo Farnese, but already on 22 February 1530, the Spanish King Charles V was crowned King of Italy right here. Charles V also became Holy Roman Emperor.
Palazzo d’Accursio’s name comes from the 13th-century jurist Accursius, who had a residence here. Accursius was born near Florence, but later became a professor in Bologna, and he is one of the teachers buried in one of the special pyramids erected at the churches of the Basilica di San Domenico (Piazza San Domenico) and the Chiesa di San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco).
Bologna’s senate decided in 1756 to let the famous architect Antonio Bibiena build a new theater in the city. Seven years later, the Teatro Comunale opened.
Throughout the 19th century, the theater was decorated repeatedly, including the beautiful ceiling painting done in the 1870s by Luigi Busi and Luigi Samoggia. The facade of the theater was designed by Umberto Ricci in 1936, after it had burned down a few years earlier.
The square in front of the theater, Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, is very atmospheric and is located in the middle of the university area, which is characterized by a lot of campus life.
Palazzo d’Archiginnasio from 1562-1563 was built as the city’s university. The highlight of the building’s halls is the very beautiful Anatomical Theatre/Teatro Anatomico, which, despite its name, is not a theatre. It was built as a lecture hall in 1637, and it was furnished with a beautiful wooden decoration.
As the seat of the world’s oldest university, the building had a special importance, and the function it had until 1803, when the palazzo Palazzo Poggi (Via Zamboni 33) became the new main building for the educational institution.
Today, the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio library is housed in the beautiful mansion. Already in the site’s entrance gate and yard, you get a good impression of the beautiful and rich decoration that is here.
Basilica di San Domenico was built from 1221. It was dedicated to the founder of the Dominican Order, Saint Dominic, and built to house his tomb. Saint Dominic died in the church in 1221, and the impressive tombstone Arca di San Dominico was erected after a time when Saint Dominic had first been buried in a simpler sarcophagus.
The gravestone statues were made by Nicola Pisano. The reliefs show selected incidents in the life of Saint Dominic. Behind the sarcophagus itself is a reliquary containing the saint’s head. The works of angels and saints Saint Petronius and Saint Proculus were done by Michelangelo.
Saint Dominic came to Bologna in 1218, and the following year he moved into an existing church building. The Dominicans started by buying land around the church and expansions were initiated; not least in the decades after Dominicus’ death in 1221, when the great church was erected. The facade is from around 1240. However, later extensions also took place; for example, the church’s bell tower was erected in 1313.
In the church there are a number of fine chapels that are worth seeing. You can also find graves other than Saint Dominic’s. Enzo of Sardinia, imprisoned in the city’s central Re Enzo (Piazza Maggiore), died in 1272 and was buried here in the Basilica di San Domenico.
A major change to the interior of the church took place in the years 1728-1732. Here, the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti introduced the baroque style of the time into the church, and it happened on the initiative of Pope Benedict XIII, who was himself a Dominican.
The square in front of the church is called Piazza San Domenico, and here you can see a column with a statue of Saint Dominic on top. It was completed in 1627, and the square’s second column, which stands next to the church, was erected in 1632 as a monument to the end of the plague in the city.
In Piazza San Domenico you can also see two tombs under small green pyramids with fine columns around them. They are, like the corresponding tombs at the Chiesa di San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco), the resting places of some of the first professors of the University of Bologna. Their standing in the city resulted in these monuments. Rolandino de’ Passeggeri and Egidio Foscarari are buried at the Basilica di San Domenico.
Parco della Montagnola is the largest green area within the boundaries of the former city walls. The cozy park was established from 1662 as a social meeting place in the city. Over time, the area has been established more like a park, and towards Piazza 20 Settembre you can see the beautiful Pincio stairs, which is an imposing entrance to Parco della Montagnola.
In the park itself there is a central fountain, paths, playgrounds and all in all a lovely and airy atmosphere here quite close to the city centre.
Via Pescherie Vecchie is a street located in the streets behind the facade of Palazzo Banchi in Piazza Maggiore. The street is Bologna’s old food market, where stalls and shops continue to offer gastronomic delights such as Italian ham, cheese, fruit and much more. It is a great place to experience the joy of the good ingredients in the country.
The name of Via Pescherie Vecchie comes from Pescarie, which indicated the places where there were fish shops. Previously, the fish shops were located in Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, and in 1583 they were moved to the street that began to be called Pescherie. The fish market moved again in 1817, thereby Pescherie was nicknamed Vecchie to distinguish the street from the new location.
Basilica di San Francesco is a church that was founded in 1236, when the city government granted the Franciscan order a piece of land in the city. The mighty building was completed in its original appearance in 1254. Later chapels and a tower were added to the church.
The building is characterized by a monumental Romanesque facade and an interior that was decorated in French Gothic. It is considered one of the best examples of this style of construction in Italy.
At the church you can see three of the professor’s graves that are outside the churches of San Francesco and San Domenico. They are respectively Odofredus, Rolandino de’Romanzi and Accursius, who all died in the latter half of the 13th century.
Palazzo Poggi was built in 1549 by Pellegrino Tibaldi for the Poggi family. The mansion is considered one of Northern Italy’s most fascinating private residences. Palazzo Poggi itself was built together with, among others, the 15th-century building Cà Grande dei Malvezzi, and many of the halls were decorated with ceiling paintings and frescoes.
The mansion became the seat of the new national university under Napoleon in 1803, and it continues to have that status for the University of Bologna, which is the world’s oldest. The mansion is also included in the neighborhood’s many university museums.
The museums are arranged in different buildings and halls, and they contain rich and varied collections as well as several interesting libraries. You can, for example, visit Specola’s Astronomical Museum/Museo della Specola, which is housed in the astronomical tower on top of Palazzo Poggi. The tower itself was built at the beginning of the 18th century.
At the Museum of the Navy and Maps/Museo delle Navi e delle Antiche Carte Geografiche you can see ship models and various geographical maps from the 1600s-1700s. Despite the fact that Bologna was not on the coast, research was done at the university on the importance for a country of being able to control the seas around them.
One can also visit the Military Architectural Museum/Museo di Architettura Militare, the Anatomical Museum/Museo di Anatomia Umana and the Natural History Museum/Museo di Storia Naturale.
Porta Galliera is one of the 12 city gates that were built into Bologna’s third wall. The current gate was built in the years 1659-1661 according to the design of Bartolomeo Provaglia. It is the most ornate of Bologna’s gates and has a baroque feel on the inside, while it looks like a fortress from the outside.
Today, Porta Galliera stands isolated in the street scene, but this has not always been the case. In addition to the city walls, from the 1330s there was a residence at the later built city gate. After the demolition of the city walls, the old entrance gates were preserved, and if you want to get closer to them, you can simply follow the ring road around the center of Bologna.
Ravenna is a city in the Italian Emilia-Romagna region, and it is a city with an interesting history. It was from here that Julius Caesar set out for his troops when he crossed the Rubicon River. And it was to here that Emperor Honorius moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the year 408.
At the end of the empire before 476, approximately 50,000 lived in Ravenna, which later became the capital of the Exarchate of Ravenna. In later centuries, the dominion over the city changed, before Ravenna belonged first to Venice and then to the Papal States. In 1861, the city became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Faenza is a city that gave its name to faience, and it is the city’s trademark. The peak of production and export was in the early 16th century, but there are still producing workshops in the city.
The city’s sights are concentrated around the central square, Piazza del Popolo, where you can see, among other things, the city’s town hall. Faenza is a cathedral city, so you can also visit the city’s cathedral, Faenza Katedral/Cattedrale di Faenza, which was built with clear Tuscan inspiration. It was built in the years 1474-1511 and contains many fine examples of Renaissance works of art.
The International Ceramics Museum/Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche is also worth a visit. The museum represents one of the world’s largest collections of ceramics. Productions from all over the world are shown, and there is a special focus on the European and not least Faenza’s own works. The more than 2,000 objects range from the Renaissance to the present day.
Florence and surrounding Tuscany are at the top of many travelers bucket lists of places to see in Italy and the World, and for good reason. The landscape is picturesque and with the many cultural cities, loads of great sights and activities await. Florence is the top of Tuscany sights with all its splendor and countless beautiful churches, palaces and more.
The city, with all its marble, offers plenty of things to do. Among the most famous places to visit are the magnificent cathedral of the city and its baptismal chapel. Palazzo Pitti with the impressive Boboli Gardens, the unique bridge of Ponte Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery’s distinguished collections and the area around the Republic Square are good choices as well.
Ferrara was one of Italy’s leading cultural centers during its heyday in the 15th century. Ferrara was ruled as a city-state from 1240-1598 by the d’Este family, who have left buildings in both the city and the region. After the d’Este family, the city became subject to the papal state and ruled from the Vatican. The Ferrara school of painting, with artists such as Costa and Tura, forms part of the city’s most famous legacy for posterity, and there are also many sights in the exciting city of culture.
The mighty castle Castello Estense was built by the ruler Niccolò II d’Este after a revolt in 1385. The castle is an impressive building complex and with its towers, drawbridges and moat it is like something out of a fairy tale book. The interior of the castle is interesting. Here you can enjoy, among other things, the beautiful Renaissance farm.
Ferrara’s cathedral is called the Cattedrale di San Giorgio and was built from 1135. It is stylistically a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The facade is very interesting and famous. It contains a stone relief showing Doomsday. Above the front door, there is a statue of the town’s saint Saint Jørgen in the lightning net. Inside, the cathedral has not preserved much of the original. What remains is mainly in the Baroque style.
The Diamond Palace/Palazzo dei Diamanti is a house that got its name from the diamond that was the symbol of the d’Este family. You can see it engraved in the building’s facade. In the Diamond Palace is the museum Pinacoteca Nazionale, whose rich collection contains works by the leading artists of the Ferrara School.
The house Casa Romei is named after the builder Giovanni Romei, who built the beautiful residence after his marriage to Princess Polissena d’Este. Highlights are the very beautiful courtyard from 1470 and the house museum, where frescoes, marble friezes, sculptures etc. from various now defunct buildings in Ferrara are collected. The museum thereby provides a great insight into the city’s artistic history.
The 61 km2 mini-republic of San Marino is breathtakingly located on and around the mountain peak Titano at 749 meters in height. The main attraction is the city of San Marino, with its labyrinthine streets surrounded by medieval defensive walls. The trip here is usually along the main road from Rimini, and all the way from the border to the city of San Marino there are settlements; if you take side roads, however, you quickly come out into the countryside.
On a visit to the city and the countryside, all you have to do is explore, and in the well-arranged city you can easily get around to all the sights, which include the three towers on the crest of the mountain, Guaita, Cesta and Montale. The city’s cathedral and the medieval Palazzo Pubblico are also must-sees. You should also give yourself time to enjoy the fantastic view of the country, the countryside and the Adriatic Sea.
Via Marco Polo
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Via Cristoforo Colombo
Via Francesco Rizzoli 7
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Piazza Cavour
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Via Marilyn Monroe
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Via del Commercio 20
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Via Indipendenza, Via Ugo Bassi, Via Francesco Rizzoli, Via Guglielmo Marconi, Via Massimo d’Azeglio, Via Luigi Carlo Farini, Via San Felice
Museo Ducati
Via Antonio Cavalieri Ducati 3
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Museo Ferrari
Via Dino Ferrari 43, Maranello
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Planetario Comunale
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Museo di Zoologia
Via Selmi 3
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Bologna region was settled in the Bronze Age some 3,000 years ago by the villanoves. The people were overcome by the Etruscans who founded the forerunner of today’s Bologna under the name Felsina.
In the 300s BC the Gallic tribe came to the area, and they conquered Felsina and the surrounding area. The Gauls mingled with Etruscan culture, and they dominated until 196 BC, when the expanding Roman Empire attacked.
After Roman victory, Bologna then became a colony in the Roman Empire under the name Bononia from 189 BC. From the very beginning, Bononia became important as commercial roads were built through the city.
During Roman times, Bologna had up to 30,000 inhabitants and was at one time the second largest city in the Italian area. Here were temples, baths and an arena.
The city burned under Emperor Claudius, but it was rebuilt and expanded under Nero, which provided the city with more public institutions.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area around Bologna was for centuries alternately attacked from the north. It was once part of the Ravenna exarchate, and from 728 the city became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy, initially King Luitprand.
Through the various powers, Bologna was strategically well placed with a sound economy. Due to a rapidly increasing trade and production of handicrafts, prosperity was on the rise and cultural development started as well. It was here, for example, that the first university in Europe was founded in 1088.
Bologna was for a time subject to the Pope of Rome, but through the 11th century the city approached the status of a city state. Later, in 1164, the city of the Lombard League joined the German-Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. It ended in Peace with Costanza in 1183, after which a boom began in Bologna’s development.
The following centuries attracted both culturally and economically rich Bologna people from all over Europe – not least because of the university, where, among other things, law could be studied. Among the students at the institution was Dante Alighieri.
From the 1100s, many of the city’s wealthy families erected the characteristic defensive towers, two of which can still be seen in the center of Bologna. The towers were part of the city’s defense, but at the same time prestige buildings where the families’ ability was exhibited.
The population increased so rapidly that there was a housing shortage in the city, which is why the many arcades that covered the sidewalks were erected. In this way the housing stock could be increased, and by the end of the 13th century Bologna was among Europe’s largest cities. Around 50,000 people lived in the city.
An increasing disagreement in the city about its status led to the end of its term as an independent state. Some were followers of the emperor, some of the Pope, and after long strife, Pope Julius II conquered Bologna in 1506, and the city state was incorporated into the Pope. The new regime was now led by a cardinal and a senate, who every two months elected a judge, gonfaloniere, who was assisted by eight consuls.
Among the highlights of the city’s political life as part of the pope’s realm were the papal coronation in 1530 by Karl V as well as the Trentinian Council of 1547-1548; an important church congregation that was otherwise located in Trento.
It also became a few centuries of general growth and cultural flourishing in the city. After the plague first reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000 at the end of the 16th century and again to 47,000 in 1630, the number of citizens quickly rose again to about 65,000, and a building was built in Bologna.
Thus, much of what Bologna visitors today experience was listed during the time of the Pope. These included seats, mansion, churches and the expansion of the university. Many artists worked in the city, which also had great ecclesiastical activity. With 96 monasteries, Bologna had more of these than any other Italian city.
Bologna was ruled by the pope until 1796, when troops from France’s Napoleon conquered the city and the area. Bologna was now under French rule and it became the capital of the newly created Republic of Cispadana.
The city flourished politically and economically and with it also followed a cultural development. Cispadana was a reality until the fall of Napoleon. After the Vienna Congress in 1815, the city again came under the control of the Pope.
There were frequent riots in the city against the rule of the Pope. This happened in 1831, 1843 and 1848, but none of them had a decisive political impact.
Italian Nationalism rose in Bologna as in other Italian cities and states. In 1859, the city voted to join the Kingdom of the Sardine, which quickly developed into the newly formed and unifying Kingdom of Italy. Upon accession, the formal affiliation with the Pope and the Pope State ceased.
In the last decades of the 20th century, Bologna developed into a city with many high-tech companies. It caught on in business, and the city quickly became one of Italy’s leading trade and exhibition cities.
The location was good on the roads between north and south in Italy, and with the railway’s construction and growth, Bologna became a major hub and later for that reason a target for allied bombs during World War II. In 1943, the city was bombed both July 16 and September 25, with severe destruction. The city’s infrastructure and industry were among the targets, but large parts of the historic city center were also destroyed.
After World War II, Bologna resumed the role of industrial and economic center. Reconstruction after the bombs of the war was carried out and solid economic growth was brought about with the development of the industry.
In connection with Bologna’s status as a European cultural city in the year 2000, the city was again renovated and restored in great style. Today’s Bologna is a wealthy city that draws on history. The city’s many historic buildings are very well maintained and you experience a very international atmosphere in the city, which still retains its Italian charm.
Bologna, Italy
Overview of Bologna
Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and it is one of Italy’s major cultural cities with its own special vibe under the arcades for which the city is so famous, they are all over the city center. Street after street you can walk in archways; for example to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca church, where there are 666 arches on the way.
Bologna has nurtured great artists through time, and is home to Europe’s oldest university. The campus houses a special atmosphere in the city and is host of interesting museums – all within walking distance of the cozy inner city.
The city center is located around beautiful Piazza Maggiore, which dates back hundreds of years. The Town Hall and the colossal church of San Petronio are just two examples of magnificent buildings here; they stand as a testimony to the rich and prosperous history of Bologna, which is also emphasized by a multitude of other churches and fine mansions.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
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Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
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Fontana del Nettuno is a monumental fountain sculpture that stands in Piazza del Nettuno in the heart of Bologna. The sculpture was prepared 1563-1566 after Tommaso Laureti’s drawings by the Flemish sculptor Giambologna in a Mannerist style that followed the High Renaissance throughout the 16th century.
The statue was erected by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo on the occasion that Borromeo’s uncle had been elected as Pope Pius IV. To make room for the statue, a building was demolished, and today the Fontana del Nettuno stands in a central square in the city as one of Bologna’s landmarks.
On the statue, Neptune is seen with a trident, which was the inspiration for the Maserati brothers’ logo starting with the Maserati Tipo 26, which was the brothers’ first car. Neptune stands on a base with inscriptions and decorations such as allegorical representations of the Danube, Nile, Ganges and Amazon rivers.
Casa Isolani is an old town house that stands as an example of 13th-century buildings in Bologna. Throughout the Middle Ages and later Bologna, there was a requirement that houses should be built with arcades, so that there was coherence through all the city’s houses. This was also true of Casa Isolani, where you can see the nine meter high oak beams that supported the arcades of the time.
In addition to the characteristic structure, Casa Isolani also stands as a rarely preserved example of civil buildings from the 13th century. The appearance today, however, comes from a restoration from the 19th century, where, among other things, two brick columns were inserted next to the original wooden columns. Through the main entrance you can walk through several small courtyards to Piazza Santo Stefano.
The impressive Basilica di San Petronio is one of Italy’s largest church buildings and is the most important in Bologna. The original plans even outlined the construction of an even larger church than the one that was built. In fact, the church should have been the country’s largest, but money was transferred to the construction of the nearby Palazzo Archiginnasio, and then the Basilica di San Petronio had to be saved.
The church was built over four centuries, from 1390-1659. The beautiful and simple entrance facade was done by Jacopo della Quercia in 1425-1438, and here you can see a number of biblical motifs.
The mighty church room was built in the Gothic style, and it is worth seeing it and also the many small and amazingly beautiful chapels, each of which was decorated differently and in varying styles. In total, there are more than 20 chapels in the church. Among those buried is Napoleon’s sister, Elise Bonaparte, who lived in Bologna.
The church’s stained glass windows are by the artist Jacob of Ulm and executed in 1464-1466. The altarpiece shows the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and it is a work from the so-called Ferrero school. You can also see Giovanni Domenico Cassini’s sundial, which was installed in the floor in 1655.
For a time in the middle of the 16th century, the church was home to the Catholic Church’s Tridentine Council, which had to assess reforms that could re-establish the Catholic Church’s rule over the breakaway Lutherans. The location of that event was a sign of Bologna’s wealth and strength.
Accursio Palace is also known as Palazzo Comunale, and it has been Bologna’s town hall for centuries. It was built on the west side of Piazza Maggiore from the 13th century and its completion lasted until the middle of the 15th century.
A tower was erected on the Palazzo d’Accursio as early as the 13th century. After a later increase in height, the town hall’s large tower clock was installed in the 15th century. Above the entrance to the town hall, in the portal you can see a work in bronze depicting Pope Gregory XIII, who came from Bologna.
Inside you can see the Red Hall/Sala Rossa, which is the city council’s meeting room, and on the 2nd floor of the town hall there is a museum with Giorgio Morandi’s works of art; Museo Morandi. There is also an art museum here, the Musei Civici d’Arte Antica.
A special event has taken place in the hall Sala Farnese. The current interior of the room dates from 1665 and was made by Cardinal Girolamo Farnese, but already on 22 February 1530, the Spanish King Charles V was crowned King of Italy right here. Charles V also became Holy Roman Emperor.
Palazzo d’Accursio’s name comes from the 13th-century jurist Accursius, who had a residence here. Accursius was born near Florence, but later became a professor in Bologna, and he is one of the teachers buried in one of the special pyramids erected at the churches of the Basilica di San Domenico (Piazza San Domenico) and the Chiesa di San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco).
Bologna’s senate decided in 1756 to let the famous architect Antonio Bibiena build a new theater in the city. Seven years later, the Teatro Comunale opened.
Throughout the 19th century, the theater was decorated repeatedly, including the beautiful ceiling painting done in the 1870s by Luigi Busi and Luigi Samoggia. The facade of the theater was designed by Umberto Ricci in 1936, after it had burned down a few years earlier.
The square in front of the theater, Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, is very atmospheric and is located in the middle of the university area, which is characterized by a lot of campus life.
Palazzo d’Archiginnasio from 1562-1563 was built as the city’s university. The highlight of the building’s halls is the very beautiful Anatomical Theatre/Teatro Anatomico, which, despite its name, is not a theatre. It was built as a lecture hall in 1637, and it was furnished with a beautiful wooden decoration.
As the seat of the world’s oldest university, the building had a special importance, and the function it had until 1803, when the palazzo Palazzo Poggi (Via Zamboni 33) became the new main building for the educational institution.
Today, the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio library is housed in the beautiful mansion. Already in the site’s entrance gate and yard, you get a good impression of the beautiful and rich decoration that is here.
Basilica di San Domenico was built from 1221. It was dedicated to the founder of the Dominican Order, Saint Dominic, and built to house his tomb. Saint Dominic died in the church in 1221, and the impressive tombstone Arca di San Dominico was erected after a time when Saint Dominic had first been buried in a simpler sarcophagus.
The gravestone statues were made by Nicola Pisano. The reliefs show selected incidents in the life of Saint Dominic. Behind the sarcophagus itself is a reliquary containing the saint’s head. The works of angels and saints Saint Petronius and Saint Proculus were done by Michelangelo.
Saint Dominic came to Bologna in 1218, and the following year he moved into an existing church building. The Dominicans started by buying land around the church and expansions were initiated; not least in the decades after Dominicus’ death in 1221, when the great church was erected. The facade is from around 1240. However, later extensions also took place; for example, the church’s bell tower was erected in 1313.
In the church there are a number of fine chapels that are worth seeing. You can also find graves other than Saint Dominic’s. Enzo of Sardinia, imprisoned in the city’s central Re Enzo (Piazza Maggiore), died in 1272 and was buried here in the Basilica di San Domenico.
A major change to the interior of the church took place in the years 1728-1732. Here, the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti introduced the baroque style of the time into the church, and it happened on the initiative of Pope Benedict XIII, who was himself a Dominican.
The square in front of the church is called Piazza San Domenico, and here you can see a column with a statue of Saint Dominic on top. It was completed in 1627, and the square’s second column, which stands next to the church, was erected in 1632 as a monument to the end of the plague in the city.
In Piazza San Domenico you can also see two tombs under small green pyramids with fine columns around them. They are, like the corresponding tombs at the Chiesa di San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco), the resting places of some of the first professors of the University of Bologna. Their standing in the city resulted in these monuments. Rolandino de’ Passeggeri and Egidio Foscarari are buried at the Basilica di San Domenico.
Parco della Montagnola is the largest green area within the boundaries of the former city walls. The cozy park was established from 1662 as a social meeting place in the city. Over time, the area has been established more like a park, and towards Piazza 20 Settembre you can see the beautiful Pincio stairs, which is an imposing entrance to Parco della Montagnola.
In the park itself there is a central fountain, paths, playgrounds and all in all a lovely and airy atmosphere here quite close to the city centre.
Via Pescherie Vecchie is a street located in the streets behind the facade of Palazzo Banchi in Piazza Maggiore. The street is Bologna’s old food market, where stalls and shops continue to offer gastronomic delights such as Italian ham, cheese, fruit and much more. It is a great place to experience the joy of the good ingredients in the country.
The name of Via Pescherie Vecchie comes from Pescarie, which indicated the places where there were fish shops. Previously, the fish shops were located in Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, and in 1583 they were moved to the street that began to be called Pescherie. The fish market moved again in 1817, thereby Pescherie was nicknamed Vecchie to distinguish the street from the new location.
Basilica di San Francesco is a church that was founded in 1236, when the city government granted the Franciscan order a piece of land in the city. The mighty building was completed in its original appearance in 1254. Later chapels and a tower were added to the church.
The building is characterized by a monumental Romanesque facade and an interior that was decorated in French Gothic. It is considered one of the best examples of this style of construction in Italy.
At the church you can see three of the professor’s graves that are outside the churches of San Francesco and San Domenico. They are respectively Odofredus, Rolandino de’Romanzi and Accursius, who all died in the latter half of the 13th century.
Palazzo Poggi was built in 1549 by Pellegrino Tibaldi for the Poggi family. The mansion is considered one of Northern Italy’s most fascinating private residences. Palazzo Poggi itself was built together with, among others, the 15th-century building Cà Grande dei Malvezzi, and many of the halls were decorated with ceiling paintings and frescoes.
The mansion became the seat of the new national university under Napoleon in 1803, and it continues to have that status for the University of Bologna, which is the world’s oldest. The mansion is also included in the neighborhood’s many university museums.
The museums are arranged in different buildings and halls, and they contain rich and varied collections as well as several interesting libraries. You can, for example, visit Specola’s Astronomical Museum/Museo della Specola, which is housed in the astronomical tower on top of Palazzo Poggi. The tower itself was built at the beginning of the 18th century.
At the Museum of the Navy and Maps/Museo delle Navi e delle Antiche Carte Geografiche you can see ship models and various geographical maps from the 1600s-1700s. Despite the fact that Bologna was not on the coast, research was done at the university on the importance for a country of being able to control the seas around them.
One can also visit the Military Architectural Museum/Museo di Architettura Militare, the Anatomical Museum/Museo di Anatomia Umana and the Natural History Museum/Museo di Storia Naturale.
Porta Galliera is one of the 12 city gates that were built into Bologna’s third wall. The current gate was built in the years 1659-1661 according to the design of Bartolomeo Provaglia. It is the most ornate of Bologna’s gates and has a baroque feel on the inside, while it looks like a fortress from the outside.
Today, Porta Galliera stands isolated in the street scene, but this has not always been the case. In addition to the city walls, from the 1330s there was a residence at the later built city gate. After the demolition of the city walls, the old entrance gates were preserved, and if you want to get closer to them, you can simply follow the ring road around the center of Bologna.
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