Bologna - Centre piazza Maggiore and around Travel Guides | Bologna | Sub Regions | Bologna - Centre piazza Maggiore and around

The space of piazza Maggiore exerts an almost magnetic pull on visitors and locals alike so that you will inevitably start or end up here. Standing in the middle of the entirely pedestrianized piazza you feel you could be in the central courtyard of a great castle, enclosed and protected by towers: the tall, thick and crenellated masses of the Palazzo Comunale and Palazzo Podesta and the forbidding weight of the Basilica di San Petronio whose faceless façade makes it more resemble a fortification than a place of worship. The site of the ancient Roman forum, the city's most emblematic buildings are here. Until the 19th century the square was the city's main market place and it still teems with life, from wandering locals on their passeggiata to ant-like swarms of visiting school children. A perfect meeting place, the piazza also offers a wonderful shop window onto Italian life. Sit back and observe the Italians as they do what they do best: hanging around for no discernible reason but looking so cool and well-groomed for it not to matter. Apart from this daily social theatre, the piazza serves as Bologna's answer to Covent Garden and there is usually some freelance art show. A forum for coronations and executions in Roman times, the piazza now stages anything from puppet shows to the ubiquitous international Peruvian panpipe band.

Sights

Fontana del Nettuno

Bologna's bronze statue of the Roman God of the Sea might as well have been conceived as a statue to the God of Photography, so much has it become a symbol of the city and a favourite backdrop for posing visitors who adorn the putti (chubby cherubs) and mermaids at his feet. Completed between 1563 and 1566 and known affectionately as il Gigante due to its size, the statue is the work of the Flemish sculptor known as Jean de Boulogne, or in Italian, Giambologna for the amount of time he spent working in the city, and is based on a design by Tommaso Laureti. The statue was commissioned by bishop Pier Donato Cesi as part of an urban beautification programme requested by the then Pope Pio IV and aimed at making Papal Bologna the second city in Italy after Rome. On the side of the Palazzo Comunale is another fountain, referred to as la fontana vecchia (old fountain), older than the Neptune fountain but also designed by Tommaso Laureti. Legend has it that prior to commencing work on the design of the Fontana del Nettuno, and preoccupied with the ample nudity of the pagan God, Giambologna sought an approval from the Pope. “For Bologna it's ok” came the answer, an early confirmation of the city's fame in Italy as a centre for more liberal attitudes and emancipated thinking.

Basilica di San Petronio

piazza Maggiore, T 051-225442. 0715-1300, 1430-1830 in winter, afternoon closing in summer. Free.

The construction of Bologna's basilica to her patron saint was a project the expense of which it is hard to imagine would be tolerated by democracies nowadays. San Petronio cost both vast amounts of money and lives to build as well as the demolition of many churches and houses to make way for it. As the façade and half-arches down the western exterior tell, the ambition was never fully realized. Funded by public money, the basilica, which is a civic temple not a cathedral, was conceived by the elected city council as a monument of opposition to the Papacy in Rome and originally intended to be larger than St Peter's. The Papacy grew fearful of this ambition and diverted money and land elsewhere – to the construction of the Archiginnasio and founding of the university. The models in the church museum in the annex (T 051-223256, 1000-1200 except Tue and Thu, free) show that what is currently standing is only one-fifth of a project that foresaw a longer nave, transept and a 150-m high dome. That said, at 132 m in length, it is still one of the largest churches in Christendom. Designed in a late Gothic style by the architect Antonio di Vicenzo, the first stone was laid in 1390 and the current state reached only after several centuries of labour. Aside from the lower arches down its side which were constructed from the stone of demolished houses, the pale, main bulk of the church is rather plain and unspectacular, emphasizing the deceit that would have been the façade had it been completed. Its base is embellished with stripes of red Veronese marble and white Istrian stone whereas the charcoal- coloured top two-thirds of the façade remain bare, giving the basilica a blunt aspect as ugly as it is intriguing.

The vast interior too seems empty and dour, with bodiless amplified supplications echoing around like platform announcements. That said, God is in the details and on closer inspection the basilica does have many redeeming features. The first of these are the unfinished figures in the half-moon above the central portal begun in 1425 by the Renaissance master Jacopo della Quercia depicting the Madonna and Child, Saint Petronius and Saint Ambrosius and, either side of the door, stories from the Old Testament. Just above the door there used also to be a rare bronze figurine of Pope Julius II made by Michelangelo in 1508. In an act of Ghibelline anti-Papal disrespect the figurine was plundered and melted down into ammunition for the wars between the Bentivoglio and Este dynasties. Meanwhile, also by de Quercia are the bas-reliefs on the nave pillars depicting stories from both the Old and New Testaments.

The basilica contains 22 side chapels with paintings, sculptures, glasswork, faience and marquetry by many Bolognese hands. Perhaps the most exquisite of these is the Capella Bolognini, financed by the Bolognini family's silk empire, with its frescoes by Giovanni de Modena depicting the Journey of the Three Kings, Paradise and, most spectacularly, Hell.

The intact skull of Saint Petronius has been preserved above the altar while the astronomical clock created in 1655 by Gian Domenico Cassini and Domenico Guglielmi illustrates the links between the basilica and the city as a centre of exploration and discovery. As a direct result of their studies of Galileo's theories at the city's university the two men conceived of this outsize sundial whose length, precisely 67.72 m, equals 1/600,000th of the earth's circumference. At noon the sunlight entering by means of a hole in the ceiling hits this line and throughout the year travels from one end to the other, enabling measurement of the exact date of the summer and winter solstices. The marble slabs along the line indicate the days and months and also the signs of the zodiac. It was this line which led to the discovery of the anomalies in the Julian calendar (in 1532 the spring equinox arrived too early) and ultimately to the invention of leap years and the reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XII, after whom the modern Gregorian calendar is named. If you want refreshment and a rest for your neck after visiting the Basilica, avoid the crowds in the cafés on piazza Maggiore, duck into via Clavature and enjoy a cappuccino at Rosa Rose.

Palazzo Comunale

piazza Maggiore 6, T 051-203526. Tue-Sat 0930-1830, Sun 1000-1830, closed Mon. Entry to galleries €4.13.

As imposing as the basilica, it is hard to believe that the fortress- like citadel that occupies the entire west flank of piazza Maggiore, encompassing 15,000 sq m, is merely the city's town hall. Built in 1287, it is more like a small city within a city. Commissioned by Cardinal Anglic de Grimoard in 1336 to encircle the complex, the considerable defences were conceived as a show of strength by the Papacy and to defend it from warring Ghibellines. The building is sometimes referred to as the Palazzo d'Accursio after the original owner of the real estate.

Other than for its sheer grandiosity, the building is notable for a number of outstanding features. The clocktower, and Bologna's answer to Big Ben, was built in 1773 by Rinaldo Gandolfi. The famous terracotta Madonna and Child which adorns the façade was completed in 1478 by a sculptor from Puglia, Nicola dell'Arca. The large classical groundfloor window is the design of Galeazzo Alessi (no relation to the juicer designer) below which are two marble eagles, the left of which is attributed to Michelangelo. On the wall below is a plaque which sets out the decreed standards of measurement in medieval times (the foot, the double arm and the perch) to avoid cheating and arguments between traders. Perhaps the most striking feature is the huge finger-wagging stature of Pope Gregory XIII produced by Menganti between 1576 and 1580. In contrast to many of Bologna's other main buildings, which are robust in their symbolic defiance of papal control, this statue, commissioned at a time when Bologna was controlled from Rome, was by its size designed to leave the citizens in no doubt as to who was boss. Ironically by the time of the Napoleonic invasions the Bolognese had become so proud of this symbol of their city, they dressed it up as Saint Petronius to save it from destruction by the French Emperor's anti-papal army.

The ground floor of the Palazzo was once used as a market and warehouse for grain. The magnificent tall first floor hall is reached via a beautiful passage with a sloping wooden causeway, so designed by Bramante for easy access by noblemen on horseback or in sedan chairs. At the top of these stairs is the Sala di Ercole ('Hercules' room', after the terracotta statue of the hero there by Lombardi). This room is decorated in beautiful frescoes, among which Tibaldi's Vigiliance, Ludovico Carracci's Phaeton's Fall, the Madonna by Lippo di Dalmasio and the Madonna and the Earthquake by Francesco Francia are the most famous. The inside courtyard contains interesting rooms, many of which are open to visitors. The most important of these is probably the Sala Farnese, home of the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte, the city public art collection which includes paintings and frescoes by many masters of the Bolognese school such as Signorelli, the Caracci brothers and di Paolo, and works by Tintoretto. Nowadays rooms of the Palazzo Comunale are used for a variety of events from receptions and functions to product launches, musical performances, temporary art exhibitions and even mild raves.

Museo Morandi

Palazzo Communale, piazza Maggiore 6, T 051-203646/203332. 1000-1800, Tue-Sun. Closed Mon. Entry €4.13.

Adjacent to the Sala Farnese within the Palazzo Comunale complex, this recently established museum has the largest collection (over 200 works) of Giorgio Morandi, Bologna's most famous contemporary artist Morandi's gentle simplicity, mellow colours and his more mundane subjects may provide a refreshing change from the classical art and religious imagery prevalent in the city. The museum also contains a reconstruction of the artist's studio at via Fondazza 36, providing an insight into his work and methods.

Palazzo Podesta and Palazzo Re Enzo

piazza Maggiore. Closed to public except during exhibitions.

The castle-like construction in the centre of piazza Maggiore in fact combines two buildings, the Palazzo Podesta and the Palazzo Re Enzo. Before becoming the governor's residence, the Palazzo Podesta was originally designed in the early 13th century to house the city's law court. Of the original structure only the Arengo tower, built in 1212, remains. The belfry with its campanazzo (literally 'bloody great bell' – it weighs 4700kg) was added in 1453 and the building's current form was the result of Giovanni II of the then ruling Bentivoglio dynasty who took a keen interest in embellishing the city and commissioned the architect Aristotele Fioravanti to renovate and redesign it. Particularly notable are the terracotta statues by Alfonso Lombardi on the pillars that support the tower, representing the city's patron saints, and the bas-reliefs of different animals which decorate the columns of the portico.

At the junction of the four passages at the foot of the belfry under the Palazzo Podesta, if you stand facing the wall and whisper, anyone standing diametrically opposite and facing the wall can hear what you are saying (traffic permitting). It is said that cheating lovers used to meet here to exchange sweet-nothings without fear of being discovered.

Built in 1244 as an extra wing of the Palazzo del Podesta for civic functions the Palazzo Re Enzo takes its name from the man who was its prisoner for 22 years. Enzo, the blonde young king of Sardinia, was the illegitimate son of Frederick the Great, ruler of the occupying imperial army in the early 13th century. In 1249 the Papal Guelf forces won a historic victory over Frederick at the battle of nearby Fossalta and took his son prisoner. He was detained in this building until his untimely death there in 1271. The building became known as Enzo's dorata prigione (golden prison) on account of the luxury in which he was kept, complete with cooks, maids and courtiers to keep him entertained. The palazzo was restored at the beginning of the 20th century, salvaging the beautiful wooden vaulted staircase that leads up to various assembly rooms nowadays used for exhibitions and meetings. Back when the main piazza was also used for executions, the executioner's wife, Lazzarina, kept flower pots next to the bodies of the hanged criminals displayed on the iron balustrade of the Palazzo Podesta. The expression “to end up in Lazzarina's garden” (the equivalent of “sleeping with the fishes”) entered popular local parlance, although it has since fallen into disuse.

Palazzo dei Notai

piazza Maggiore. Mon and Wed 0900-1300, Tue, Thu and Fri 1500-1900.

Nestled between the basilica and town hall is the Hall of the Notaries. With its more modest proportions and Gothic windows with their triforas and marble columns, it is more ornate and pleasing to the eye than the monsters which sandwich it. The oldest part of the building opposite the town hall dates back to the 13th century while the rest was added in the late 15th century. The building was the seat of the city Guild of Notaries and place of study for some of the legal scholars at Bologna's university who pioneered many of the basic principles of European law.

Palazzo dei Banchi

piazza Maggiore. Closed to the public.

Completing the enclosure of the square on its eastern side the Bankers' House (1412) is so named after the bankers and money lenders who use to have banchi ('benches' or stalls) under its arcades (indeed this is the origin of our word 'bank'). Originally a row of jumbled buildings they were brought together in the 16th century by the architect Vignola to create the present harmonious façade that is oddly classical compared to many of Bologna's old buildings. It is possible the façade also served to hide from the eyes of the medieval nobles the sore of the lower classes and small-time tradesmen with their businesses that populated the group of narrow streets immediately behind it known as the Quadrilatero. The majestic row of arcades underneath the façade is known as il Pavaglione. In the days when the piazza was used as a weekly market, this area was where the cocoons of the pava (silkworm) were sold under a large protective marquee or pavilion.

Il Quadrilatero and il Mercato di Mezzo

Il Quadrilatero is the name given to the grid of narrow streets hidden behind the east of piazza Maggiore. These streets were home to the small businessmen of medieval Bologna and each street still bears the name of the powerful associations of artisans and merchants it was known for: orefici (jewellers), clavature (locksmith), pescherie (fishmongers), drapperie (textile merchants). The grid, itself part of the original Roman settlement, used to extend further north but the roads were flattened to make way for via Rizzoli and piazza Ravegnana in line with the 19th-century fashion for boulevards. Today these are still among Bologna's liveliest market streets. By day they are full of the smells, colours and cries of butchers, grocers and the fresh local produce that makes the cuisine of this city so rich. By night they become the stage for Bologna's beautiful youth as they strut in and out of the many bars that have become some of the city's trendiest early evening nightspots.

Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita

via Clavature 10, T 051-236245. 0700-1300.

You could be forgiven for missing this tiny church amid the bustle of the market streets of the Quadrilatero and its presence in such a hive of trade seems incongruous. Originally built in the late 17th century to house the ill and impoverished folk of this quarter the church grew a dome and became home to one of the unrivalled works of beauty in Bologna's treasure chest of fine art: the dramatic Three Marys Lament over the Dead Christ, by the sculptor Niccolo dell'Arca. Mary's desperation was once described by the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio as “a petrified scream”. The next door oratory houses a famous group of 14 similarly expressive terracotta statues by Alfonso Lombardi called Death of the Virgin. These sculptures, realistic in their portrayal of human suffering, were in their time considered unworthy of note compared to the fashion for more idealized renderings of the narrative.

Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio

via dell'Archiginnasio. Mon-Fri 0900-1800, Sat 0900-1330.

This rose-coloured building on the eastern flank of piazza Galvani, with its beautiful 139 m-long portico, was the seat of Bologna's university from 1563 until 1803 when it was transferred to via Zamboni. The idea, conceived by a professor of law named Pier Donato Ceri, was to bring together under one roof the various faculties of the university which had, since the 11th century, cropped up in a disordered way around the city.

The beautiful interior courtyard with its double loggia is also noted for the 6000 or so heraldic shields emblazoned under the arches. These shields replaced tower-buildings as the fashion by which noblemen, eminent professors, students and rich people could immortalize their families. Such was the rush for wall space, shields were disfigured by competing families leading to a law being passed to prevent such profanation.

The site is divided into two halves representing two basic distinctions in the realm of study that were made by the university, the southern half for Law and the northern half for students of the Arts (including mathematics and natural sciences). Under the loggia in the main courtyard is the Santa Maria dei Bulgari chapel which has some remnants of frescoes by Bartolomeo Ceso.

Within the Archiginnasio complex lies the Teatro Anatomico (Mon-Sat 0900-1300, Mon-Fri 1300-1830), the beautiful dissection theatre made entirely out of wood and resembling a law court with delicately écorché wood statues of skinned torsos by Giannotti. Built in 1637 it is a replica of the original 1595 room where the importance of human dissection to medicine was first demonstrated, often to mass audiences. Dissections were only carried out in the winter months as Zanussi had not yet invented the fridge.

The Archiginnasio also houses the Biblioteca Comunale (municipal library), located here since 1838 and containing over 700,000 books and a collection of rare manuscripts that make it one of the most important libraries in Italy. The whole building suffered badly in a bombing raid in January 1944 but was skillfully restored to its current state.

Museo Civico Archeologico

via dell'Archiginnasio 2, T 051-233849. Tue-Fri 0900-1800, Sun 1000-1830, Closed Mon. €4.13, concessions €2.07, under-14s free.

This 14th-century building, itself a section of the Pavaglione, was formerly the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Morte, a hospital for the terminally ill and criminals sentenced to death. In the 16th century it underwent refurbishment before in 1881 becoming the home of the museum of municipal archaeology. Local archaeology might be a bit of a niche interest to the average visitor and the museum does have a rather stuffy atmosphere. That said, there is a rich collection of Egyptian artefacts and bas-reliefs (second in Italy only to the collection in Turin), various Greek and Roman antiquities including a bust of Emperor Nero, and an important collection of relics from the Etruscan civilization that made Bologna (or Felsina as they named it) the capital of northern Etruria and one of their most important economic centres from around the 5th century BC.

Metropolitana di San Pietro

Via dell'Indipendenza 7, T 051-222112. 0700-1200, 1530-1900 daily.

Bologna's squat cathedral sits flush with one of the city's busiest streets like a plump bishop. As a result it feels rather shut in and, unlike its publicly funded rival, San Petronio, does not benefit from any space which would make it possible really to admire its façade or which might enable it to dominate or inspire awe in humble and fearful citizens in the way it was intended. That said, the two 13th-century lions in Veronese marble by Mastro Ventura that guard its entrance are magnificent and the vast interior conceals a number of beautiful terracotta figures and frescoes by hands of the Bolognese school, most notably the Annunciation by Ludovico Carracci in the sacristy. The 12th-century belfry by Mastro Alberto is also considered a masterpiece. Otherwise the overall building is a composite of ruins and refurbishments made to the original 9th-century Holy Roman church site that has suffered fires and earthquakes down the ages. Only a beautiful spiral column inside supported by the statue of a crossed legged man remains from its former elegance. Every year in May the image of Bolognese saint la Madonna di San Luca is brought down here from her sanctuary on the hill. Turning out of the church and left into via Altabella you find the remains of an arch known as the porta dei laureati (gate of the graduates) through which new graduates once passed.

Chiesa e Convento di San Salvatore

via Volto Santo 1, T 051-222852. 0730-1200, 1500-1900.

Constructed in the 17th century, this church is unusual in Bologna for its single nave and the echoes of Roman classicism in both the exterior and interior. Many important pictures are to be found in the various chapels inside, most notably perhaps the Crowning of the Virgin by Vitale da Bologna. The figure of Thomas Becket, one of the university's famous alumni, appears in the Presentation of the Virgin and of Saint Thomas of Canterbury by Girolamo de Treviso. This church also houses the tomb of Il Guercino, Giovani Francesco Barbieri, one of the greatest Italian painters of the 17th century. The associated 16th-century Augustine convent with its three cloisters of double loggias and delicate columns is an impressive monument for its deceptive size alone.

Piazza Roosevelt

As its name suggests this square to the west of piazza Maggiore belongs to a more recent period in Bologna's history and was in fact built on the ruins that ensued from the Allied bombardments in 1943. Unattributed holes from shrapnel are still visible on the walls opposite the Palazzo Comunale.

Palazzo Caprara

via IV Novembre 24.

Not many police forces nowadays can boast an HQ as beautiful as this early 17th-century former nobleman's palace. It was commissioned by Carlo Caprara who went by the title Master of the Horse of the Emperor and had inflated views of his station and what residence would best reflect it. He couldn't keep up repayments and had to sell, subsequent occupants gradually relieving it of its art heritage. Only the façade hints at its former splendour.

Palazzo Marescalchi

via IV Novembre 5.

Another of Bologna's majestic 17th-century noble houses, this palazzo is noted for its more than usually intricate exterior embellishments. Also impressive is the art on display in its drawing room, most notably the Allegory of Air and Fire by Guido Reni and a host of other decorations by other Bolognese hands.

Biblioteca Multimediale Sala Borsa

Piazza Nettuno 3, T 051-204400.

Alongside the Palazzo Comunale and near the old city mint in via della Zecca (road of the mint) is Bologna's former stock exchange. This is Bologna's only art-deco building, complete with stained-glass roof and cast-iron columns. It was commissioned in 1883 as a stock exchange but fell into disuse in 1903 due to lack of trade. In 1989 remains of the Roman forum were uncovered beneath the floor, visible through a glass floor. It is now the pride of Bologna's contemporary urban development plans – a multimedia exhibition hall and library, boasting some 270 networked computers containing all sorts of documentation on contemporary culture and Bologna's history. The library is particularly well-equipped for children.

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