Bologna - Northwest around via Galliera Travel Guides | Bologna | Sub Regions | Bologna - Northwest around via Galliera

Badly damaged both by Allied bombardments and subsequent bad taste in its reconstruction, the area to the northwest of piazza Maggiore is not instantly as attractive as the rest of the Centro Storico. With some notable exceptions this is an area of modern urban planning where wider boulevards replace the winding narrow alleys and concrete, glass and shiny marble replace the ageing red stone, wooden beams and porticoes. The more elegant, older central streets of via Galliera, via Nazario Sauro and via Montegrappa are home to beautiful, understated churches such as the exquisite Chiesa della Madonna Colombano, less bombastic than others in the city, as well as the important Museo Civico Medioevale e del Rinascimento. Much of the area's interest lies beneath the surface in the warehouses and docks of the city's ancient system of underground canals. In recent years, these forgotten industrial spaces, especially in the areas around Porta Lame, have been rediscovered, and either developed by the council or claimed by Bologna's experimental youth, their intriguing architecture used to transform them into spectacular hybrids of nightclub and projection spaces. The old city docks, and the tobacco factory, bakery and slaughterhouse around the via del Porto and Giardino Cavaticcio are in the process of reincarnation as exciting arts centres. At a time when urban regeneration of industrial spaces is all the rage, this area of Bologna is one of the most trendy, dynamic and surprising in the city.

Sights

Palazzo Fava

via Manzoni 2.

The rooms of this old family casa signorile (nobleman's house) are now occupied by Bologna's prestigious Hotel Baglioni. While you may not be able to afford to stay here, a peek at the beautiful frescoes by Annibale and Agostino Carracci on the first floor can be free if done discreetly. In typical Italian style Roman ruins have recently been discovered under the breakfast room.

Museo Civico Medioevale e del Rinascimento

via Manzoni 4, T 051-203930. Tue-Sat 0900-1830, Sun 1000-1830. Closed Mon. €4.13, concession €2.07.

Located in the beautiful old noble 15th-century Palazzo Ghislardi Fava, with its elegant entrance courtyard, this museum inspires even those who are not immediately interested in its rich collection of artefacts from the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Here, against a wallpaper of paintings by the Carraccis and their pupils, the enthusiast can admire myriad objects ranging from pieces of armour and musical instruments to ceramics, tombs and busts of popes and dignitaries, including one of Gregory XV by Bernini.

Chiesa della Madonna di Galliera

via Manzoni 5, T 051-230682. 0730-1200, 1600-1830.

Notable for its beautiful and delicate sandstone façade complete with figurines, this little 13th-century church, with 16th- and 17th-century additions and restorations also contains a number of important paintings in its many chapels, as well as a beautiful high altar by Francesco Bibiena.

Via Galliera

The quiet via Galliera has always been one of Bologna's most aristocratic and well-to-do streets, lined with many fine palazzi which next door to each other illustrate very well how Bolognese architecture evolved over the centuries: 15th-century terracottas (numbers 13, 14 and 15), 16th-century proportional harmony (numbers 3-5), and Baroque majesty (number 8). Palazzo Calzolari at number 14 houses many frescoes behind its terracotta façade; the 18th-century Palazzo Montanari, now partly a public building, with its beautiful façade by Alfonso Torreggiani is also home to many frescoes; and the Casa delle Tuate at number 6 borrowed its corner pillar from the destroyed Bentivoglio palace.

Stazione

piazza Medaglie d'Oro.

Although not architecturally significant in itself, Bologna's station nevertheless features as a millstone on the Italian public consciousness for the devastating terrorist bomb attack that claimed 88 victims there in August 1980. The bomb was planted by neo-fascist activists targeting Bologna as a renowned outpost of leftist thinking. A plaque on the outside of the station and on the main platform commemorates the dead and close scrutiny of the station building shows a seam where it has been rebuilt.

Chiesa dei Santi Gregorio e Siro

via Montegrappa 15.

On the corner of via Montegrappa and via Nazario Sauro, this church used to be the home of the Ghisilieri family, their tower having been neatly transformed into a campanile. The side chapels inside contain famous paintings such as Annibale Carracci's Baptism of Christ and two frescoes by Ludovico Carracci.

Mercato delle Erbe

via Ugo Bassi 2.

Bologna's covered market has occupied the elegant neo-classical building between via Ugo Bassi and via Belvedere since 1910. Inside row upon row of stalls are laden with fresh produce from fruit and vegetables to dairy produce and meat – not the herbs you'd expect from the name. In the annex is the Mercato del Pesce (fish market), similarly well-stocked and more pungent.

Chiesa della Madonna del Colombano

via Parigi. 0830-1130, 1530-1800. Visit to the upstairs oratory by request only.

One of the real hidden treasures of Bologna is the oratory on the first floor of this otherwise unspectacular 16th-century church. It is arguably the most concentrated symphony of artistic endeavour and the most beautiful individual space in the whole city. The ground floor Virgin and Child by Lippo di Dalmasio and other paintings by Antonio Carracci are a prelude to the stunning upstairs which seems as if it was almost a private chamber where Guido Reni, il Domenichino, Lorenzo Garbieri and other pupils of the Carracci academy could experiment with colours, forms, subjects and themes.

Teatro Arena del Sole

via dell'Indipendenza 44, T 051 2911910. Mon 1530-1900, Tue-Sat 1100-1900.

In contrast to Bologna's other main theatre, the Comunale, this 19th-century arena was conceived as a return to the Greco-Roman idea of a democratic theatre in the shape of a horseshoe. The theatre seats 900 people in its six tiers and was originally planned to host matinees.

Porta Galliera

Reconstructed in 1661, this site marks the northern gate of the old city wall's 14th-century third circle. The old port district, via del Porto

In 2000, with increased public spending triggered by Bologna's nomination as a European City of Culture, work began on developing and revitalizing the area around via del Porto which used to be the city's financial hub. This was the port area where the city's underground canals met the diverted Reno river and where the major commodities of the day, salt, marble, silk and hemp, were stored and traded. Only charitably could this area be called a true docklands in the sense of a maritime city (the river is a relative trickle), but its industrial warehouse architecture is nevertheless similar and, as is the fashion, is now ripe to be turned into a range of new cultural centres.

The old Tobacco Factory on via Azzo Gardino is being transformed into a theatre and film library and centre for film studies. The nearby Slaughterhouse, also on via Azzo Gardino, will be the new home and projection room of the Lumiere Cineclub. The Tobacco Factory building was once the 12th-century Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria Nova. Partially destroyed and renewed in the 16th century, it expanded to the nearby Cavaticcio gardens. In the 19th century, Napoleon closed the monastery and it was then that it took on its more secular role as a tobacco storage facility. The building was heavily bombed in World War II but still retains some of its Liberty (Italian art nouveau) features.

The old Bakery on the corner of via Fratelli Rosselli and via Don Minzoni, a 1917 building which played an important role in feeding the city in the First World War is being redesigned as the new home or extension of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna which is bursting at the seams in its space in the Fiera district. The Molino Tamburi, a 18th-century paper mill alongside the Cavaticcio canal is due to open as a new university faculty of Communications as part of a design for the whole complex by architect Aldo Rossi which foresees a raised walkway crossing the Cavaticcio gardens connecting the modern art gallery to the old dock.

The Ex-Salara, Bologna's salt warehouse, with its sloping floor designed to let the water drain away, has already been restored after it was abandoned in 1934 and buried in rubble. Downstairs in the basement is the new home of the ultra-trendy and very cool Cassero nightclub while upstairs is also to become an exhibition centre allied to the Modern Art gallery.

Porto

The redevelopment plan also forsees the restoration of the port area, recovering the quays, brick steps, cast iron bollards and original paving of its heyday. The original port was dug in the area of Pora Lame, a commission given to the architect Jacopo Barozzi, otherwise known as il Vignola. A hole was made for the canal and up to 50 boats could be moored in the dock at one time. Still standing is the wharf, restructured in 1928 and covered by an arch near via Don Minzoni inside which is an old 17th-century bridge. This area will become pedestrianized, and no doubt lined with cafés, together with the cleaned-up Cavaticcio gardens (currently still very overgrown), making for a scenic quasi 'left bank' atmosphere. It may be hard to believe in its current state but the good record of the local government suggests the project will be realized and a success.

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