Explorations of a medieval city known for its grand towers, churches, and porticos!
Bologna is a gorgeous city in Italy’s northern region of Emilia-Romagna. The city is home to the world’s oldest university (founded in 1088) and its porticos are a UNESCO world heritage site in themselves.
This was my second visit to Bologna. I saw some of the same places I saw last time, but also a few new places. I even found some fast casual tortellini.
Jana Irving I was on my way to the Basilica di San Francesco to start out the day. There are 8 large raised medieval mausoleums in the churchyard behind the church, called the Tombe dei Glossatori.
Jana Irving Many Northern Italian churches are fairly plain on the outside, especially the medieval Gothic ones.
Jana Irving A typical Gothic church in the French fashion.
Jana Irving The chapels in the apse are all finely decorated.
Jana Irving It’s totally normal in Europe for there to be a giant fortress in the middle of the city.
Jana Irving Palazzo del Podestà on Bologna’s main piazza, Piazza Maggiore. It’s ringed by civic buildings and Bologna’s grand church.
Jana Irving The 15th century Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna’s city hall and part of the fortress from a couple of photos ago. We’ll be heading in there later.
Jana Irving The medieval Basilica di San Petronio with its unfinished 16th century facade.
Jana Irving The interior is fairly similar to San Francesco but on a much grander scale. It’s also very bright inside considering it was raining all day.
Jana Irving Imagine how much more gorgeous this church would have been when I was painted.
Jana Irving Moving on because it was a very full day. Here’s the Fontana del Nettuno in the aptly named Piazza del Nettuno, with Palazzo d’Accursio on the right.
Jana Irving From here you can also see Bologna’s Two Towers. The smaller one (Garisenda) has a severe case of leaning tower and the area around the base was a construction site in an effort to save the 12th century tower.
Jana Irving The Palazzo Re Enzo. I love the city center of Bologna.
Jana Irving Did I say before that Bologna has porticos (logge)? These are very convenient on rainy days.
Jana Irving Piazza Minghetti. I love all the warm colors.
Jana Irving A fancy portico.
Jana Irving San Domenico‘s main chapel has the ornate Arca di San Domenico, a monument containing the remains of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican order. The sculpture took over 500 years to finish.
Jana Irving Outside in the piazza in front of the San Domenico are another couple of those raised mausoleums. This one has been incorporated into another building!
Jana Irving I can’t get enough of these medieval buildings.
Jana Irving Piazza Santo Stefano and the very interesting Santo Stefano. This is my favorite church complex in Bologna.
Jana Irving Some very highly altered buildings around the piazza.
Jana Irving Look at all those porticos!
Jana Irving One of the really interesting parts of Santo Stefano is that it is a large complex with many different churches and chapels. This octagonal 5th century church (rebuilt in the 11th-12th centuries) was built to be similar to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Jana Irving And the much older Santi Vitale e Agricola. There could have been a basilica here all the back in the 4th century.
Jana Irving The 8th century Church of the Crucifix (with later remodels) built by the Lombards.
Jana Irving The interior of the Holy Sepulcher look alike with a giant pulpit. The relics of St. Petronius (the guy who built the first church here) are under the pulpit.
Jana Irving A giant religious complex wouldn’t be complete without a cloister.
Jana Irving Another gorgeous cloister.
Jana Irving Inside of the very old Basilica di Santi Vitale e Agricola.
Jana Irving The so-called sarcophagus of Saint Agricola.
Jana Irving Santa Maria dei Servi, a Gothic church with its own portico.
Jana Irving A medieval building with very ornate windows.
Jana Irving Skipping ahead by a lot (so much to see in Bologna). La Piccola Venezia (little Venice). Streets and buildings mostly cover this little canal except in a couple of spots.
Jana Irving Teatro Anatomico, a 16th century hall used for dissections and autonomy lessons. It’s, however, an exact reproduction of the original which was damaged in WWII.
Jana Irving The teacher would give directions from up here to his students doing the dissections. In the days before antibiotics, dissections were dangerous to the dissector.
Jana Irving I did not expect for this place to be so popular.
Jana Irving Now the Palazzo d’Accursio and the civic museum.
Jana Irving It’s still an active city hall, but they have set aside some rooms as a museum. You can pay more and climb up to the clock tower.
Jana Irving It’s a pretty museum.
Jana Irving Ahhh… damask.
Jana Irving My camera shutter echoed so loudly in this room that one of the museum minders came to make sure I wasn’t doing something stupid.
Jana Irving Bologna has so many porticos.
One day is not enough for Bologna. Two separate one day visits will not suffice. I had to skip so many neat things that I saw for the post to be not insane in length. Bologna is very easy to reach from Florence or Milan. I suggest a visit.
Tune in for my next update where I visit the gorgeous city of Brescia!
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Start at the beginning of this adventure.
