Historical Buildings, Bologna

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“This is a major plan of our city’s historic centre. I hope the
reopening of the canal can be considered in a calm fashion, in order to create a comfortable and attractive place in this striking stretch of Bologna.”
— from a statement by Bologna’s mayor, Flavio Delbono, January 2010

PET PROJECT Few visitors know it, but under Bologna exists a dense network of canals. Bologna was not built on a river, therefore, in order to provide water for drinking and sanitation, and as an energy source to weave silk and grind wheat, canals were dug between the 12th and 16th centuries from the River Reno. The canals helped make the city one of Europe’s major industrial centers. The waterways, which spanned the entire city, were gradually filled in or paved over beginning in the 1950s as part of Bologna’s rebuilding efforts after the Second World War. We took a late afternoon pick-me-up at Caffè Opera overlooking one of the canals.

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“This water was brought from a mountain spring to the square for the citizens’ convenience.”
— the inscription on Fontana Vecchia

Fontana Vecchia, the Old Fountain, is set against the wall of Palazzo d’Accursio (city hall, also known as Palazzo Comunale) that faces via Ugo Bassio. The Sicilian architect and painter Tommaso Laureti (1530-1602), was granted the commission in 1563; and the classically styled fountain was completed in 1565. Tommaso Laureti also designed Fontana di Nettuno (see von.otter’s Bologna Things To Do Tip: “Neptune: A Bulging Mass of Bronze Muscle”).

Made of sandstone, this fountain replaced a fountain that was demolished in 1483, and whose stones were given to the workshop of the nearby Basilica di San Petronio. The water that supplies Fontana Vecchia and Fontana di Nettuno come from the same source.

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After passing out from Bologna’s center through Porta Saragozza and walking along the porticoes of via Saragozza you will reach a most lovely arch, Arco Meloncello.

The fabulous Arco Meloncello, completed in 1732, unites the porticoes along Via Saragozza with those that run up the hill to Santuario della Beata Vergine di San Luca.

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“The few hours spent in Bologna next morning were devoted to a visit to the church known as the Madonna di San Luca. It was from the Porta Saragozza, on the south of the city, that I approached the striking, isolated Monte della Guardia, on whose summit the church is perched.”
— from ‘Notes on North Italy’ in “The Irish Monthly” 1878 by Nathanael Coloak

Porta Saragozza is one of the twelve gateways built into the walls that were constructed around the city during the Middle Ages. This porta was reconstructed in the mid-1800s. It is from this gate that the world’s longest portico, which leads up to the Sanctuary of San Luca, begins.

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“Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; because it is the experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.”
— Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) Italian poet and philosopher born in Le Marche

LIFE’S EXPERIENCE Giacomo Leopardi attended evening salons of music and poetry at Palazzo Bolognini; these salons were hosted by the Casino Society in the rooms of this palazzo’s ground floor.

Palazzo Bolognini (see photo #3, the building on the left of the photo) was begun in 1517; it turns passers-by’s heads with the 177 heads (see photo #1, #2, #4, & #5) that decorate its façade. This unique decoration led to its nickname Palazzo della Teste, Palace of Heads. The impressive stone and terra-cotta heads, some large some small, are the work of Alfonso Lombardi and Niccolò da Volterra.

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“Do not allow a chance to the enemy. Continue to fight until final victory.”
Luigi Longo (March 1900-1980), Commander in Chief Italian Resistance 1943-1945

Bologna was a center for the Italian Resistance, first against Italy’s Fascist government, then against the Nazi occupation.

Opposite Palazzo di Re Enzo, which is reflected in the monument’s glass (see photos #4 & #5), a simple tribute to Bologna’s Resistance fighters, more than 1,800 of whom were put to death by the Nazi SS, has been created on a wall of Palazzo Comunale.

Initially black and white photos were posted on the wall informally by the victims’ relatives at the end of the Second World War. Now this sacrario, shrine, is a collection of 2,052 tiles printed with portraits and names.

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Recently opened, Corte Isolani is a small commercial centre housed in two adjoining historical palaces in Bologna. The two impressive palaces, Casa Isolani and Palazzo Bolognini are linked together through an inner courtyard and are considered a successful rehabilitation project of historical buildings. Casa Isolani on Strada Maggiore dates from the 13th century and is one of the oldest surviving palaces in Bologna. On via Santo Stefano is the 15th century Palazzo Bolognini, one of the most beautiful palaces in Bologna, combining Gothic and Renaissance styles.

Bologna's main opera house, il Teatro Comunale is located in the heart of the University quarter on via Zamboni. It occupies the site of the infamous Palazzo Bentivoglio, which was destroyed in 1507 after the tyrant rule of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, who was expelled by Pope Julius II. The opera house was designed by Antonio Galli Bibiena in 1750 and inaugurated in 1763 with a premier of the opera il Trionfo di Clelia, by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The interior of the theatre was redone in 1866, while the façade was rebuilt in 1937.