Italy 2011 part I - Bologna

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July 1st 2011

Published: July 13th 2011

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Ake Och Emma

Palazzo d'Accursio

Palazzo d'Accursio is home to the city hall

Bologna - A city of porticos

In May this year Ake managed to take a few (well deserved) days off from work. He then went to Italy and visited Bologna, Pisa and San Marino. Strictly San Marino isn't Italy. It's in Italy but it isn't Italy. Well, I'll get to that when I write the blog entry on San Marino because that is going to be a separate one. This one is only on Bologna.

Bologna is an old historical city. In the city centre there are many palaces and churches dating back from times when Bologna was one of the most important and rich cities in all of what today is Italy. Many of these historical palaces are or have been a part of the University of Bologna. The university dates back to late 11th century making it the oldest university in the world.

At the main square, Piazza Maggiore in the city centre there are several important buildings. One of them is the San Petronio Basilica. I don't have any photo of the front of the basilica because it was being restored and was thus covered with tarpaulins. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside the church so there is no

Palazzo del Podestà

Palazzo del Podestà runs along one side of Piazza Maggiore

photo of the large sundial in the church. But the backside of the basilica also has an interesting feature worth writing about and that I could take photos of. When they began the construction of San Petronio Basilica they had plans on making it larger than it is today. The pope realised that the finished basilica would be larger than the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The pope couldn't tolerate that so he ordered a palace to be built next to the construction site. The palace runs along the side of the basilica and made it impossible to build in that direction. Today it is possible to see the result of this intervention by the pope because one section in the back of San Petronio Basilica is not finished.

The building that the pope ordered to be erected to halt the extension of San Petronio Basilica to the east was Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, which for many years was part of the University of Bologna. In one of the rooms in this palace there is a very well preserved anatomical theatre. An anatomical theatre is a specially designed lecture hall where human bodies were dissected for the purpose of teaching

San Petronio Basilica

When they built the basilica they had plans on making it larger than it is today. The pope ordered a palace to be built next to the construction site. The result is that the basilica is unfinished.

medical students about anatomy.

Other important buildings around Piazza Maggiore are Palazzo d'Accursio, which is home to the city hall, and Palazzo del Podestà. Near Piazza Maggiore is Piazza Nettuno with the fountain Fontana di Nettuno. It is a fountain which in the centre has a statue of the Roman God Neptune.

In the next blog entry I will write about what I did in Pisa. For obvious reasons I will write about the leaning tower of Pisa. But what many people don't know is that there are also two leaning towers in Bologna. One of these towers has a tilt so large that it rivals the tower in Pisa for the title the Most Leaning Tower in Italy.

Many of the palaces in Bologna are built so that they create a so called portico. When you walk around in Bologna you soon notice that it is the porticos that give the city its character. Bologna really is a city of porticos. Not only are there many porticos in Bologna. The city also has the longest portico in the world. I really like taking photos of porticos so this city was one that I liked a lot. Maybe if I come back to Bologna