The Porticoes of Bologna

In 2016 we made a short stopover in Bologna and walked around the center not knowing yet which parts will belong to the WHS. Now in March 2023 we arrived around 10.a.m., parked outside the center and chose a Tour between the different Clusters of porticoes. Our first cluster was via Zamboni from there to the Strada Maggiore. Our daughter enjoyed Bologna strolling around the flat terrazzo with her scooter.Around noon we arrived at the Via Stefano, where we missed Tickets for the Torre Asinelli, but had perfect Pasta al ragout at Sfoglia Rina. I really can recommend lunch there, although it is a Instagram hyped place. After lunch we still strolled around San Petronio before we took resumed our travels to south eastern Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi. Bologna is a wonderful city. I cannot really understand why the WHS is limited to the Porticoes. Food is omnipresent here, thus it should be recognized at some point.

I had already visited this WHS several times before its inscription but my main focus of my visits was the city itself and its main monuments and attractions. I had used most of the central porticoes to get around especially when it's rainy weather and while shopping. The only ones that stood out and that I had a crappy photo of were those at Via Farini. This time round in 2022, my main focus were the 12 locations of these porticoes, even though if I were to pick just one for a quick combined visit with the city I'd still choose the ones at Via Farini.

That said, the extra effort involved to get to the Bologna FC 1909 stadium and the hike uphill along the Portico of San Luca are well worth it. This is believed to be the longest portico in the world: 3.8 km long, with 666 arches, 15 chapels and 489 stairs. This portico actually starts at Arco Bonaccorsi and at Via Saragozza turns into an uphill climb to Colle della Guardia where there is the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca (free entrance), which happens to be also the departure point of the Via degli Dei trail to Firenze (I met a number of hikers gathering there quite early in the morning). Although it's tempting to remain within the porticoes in the shade, especially in summer, when you get close to the sanctuary it's a good idea to walk a bit outside of the …

The last time that I had Italy 'complete' (i.e., I had visited all of its then 57 WHS), it lasted for only 2 weeks. But after my recent visit to Bologna I now have full coverage for at least 10 more months (unfortunately I don’t ‘have’ Italy’s 2022 nomination Civita di Bagniregio already). Bologna's Porticoes got inscribed last July, a slight surprise after Deferral advice. On the ground, I found no official plaques yet, nor the Italian equivalent of jubilant “Wir sind Welterbe” banners.

My first impression of the city wasn’t that great: its streets are a bit grubby, with walls covered in graffiti. The porticoes allow for little daylight on a cloudy day. Fortunately, the core zone was extended in the final nomination proposal, so the most important monuments of the city that lie anywhere near a portico are now also included.

A remarkable one is the San Petronio Basilica – a church that was planned to become bigger than St. Peter's in the Vatican. That didn't quite work out, but it still is one of the largest churches in the world (just beating the Cologne Cathedral for example). Its façade also stayed unfinished. The entrance is guarded by armed soldiers – terrorists have already planned to blow up this church twice due to it having a 15th-century fresco depicting Mohammed in hell, tormented by devils.

The church interior didn’t do much for me. In the side street next to it I found a much more …

Hallo everybody,

My name is Maurice, I'am switzerland from Zurich but my parents are Italian from Bergamo area.

So a couple of years ago we decided to visit some different towns of Italy, the one who knocked me among all was surely Bologna.

And I don't want to mean the wide middle-aged City center with the Two Towers or the oldest and well - known all around the world University but especially the huge, amazing and fascinating net of Porticoes who embraces all the utban agglomerate.

 But to catch the feeling, the real feeling, you have to walk under them in a rainy or very hot day and it will like to be confortly sit in your sitting-room but not alone and able to live and perfectly understand the real behaviour of people who lives here!

In fact like the modern videogames Porticoes are INTERACTIVE but they are all TRUES...Here people get the joy to live and to do something together and Porticoes, are the glue that make it possible...

 They are also very different each others: If you ralenty your path and look around the arches you can discover lots of little thing you can't imagine to find here: hidden Madonna altars for an old wow received, old graffity with Insignia and prices of ancient whorehouses and also a window that, If you open it, you can discover a Water Channel that passes between houses as a little Venice! 

It's difficult to …

The topic of this tentative site is not University of Bologna, the oldest operating university in Europe, or Historic Centre of Bologna, one of the largest historic centres in Italy. The title is The Porticoes of Bologna. The nomination picks out one architectural element and focuses exclusively on it. The historic city centre is only the buffer zone of the nominated property, and the core zone does not even consist of whole buildings. Actually only the porticos are included. Really a strange nomination.
Porticos are everywhere in Bologna. In the city centre, they stretch over a length of almost 40 kilometres, more if you include the outskirts. However, not the entire network is nominated. Twelve locations were selected to represent 900 years of architectural evolution, from the 12th to the 20th century. About half of them are located in the city centre, so that every visitor to Bologna can safely tick this site as properly visited if it will be inscribed.

Update August 2021: The nomination has changed following the evaluation by ICOMOS. The inscribed areas have been considerably expanded to include not only the porticoes but also the associated buildings and additional components such as Piazza Maggiore and the Basilica, Palazzo Poggi, Cimitero della Certosa, the entire Church of San Luca, etc.

I have visited Bologna several times in the last decades, two visits were after 2006 when the porticoes became the topic of the TWHS. Based on my memories and confirmed by my …

Bologna is very interesting town, and it reminds me a blend of Milan and Florence. The Piazza Maggiore with all the historical buildings with S Petronio basilica and Fountain of Nettuno is worth visiting and seeing. Other nice places of quite large center of Bologna are the area around the towers – Torre degli Asinelli, the University area and the churches of S Stefano, S Domenigo and S Francesco.

However, the feature nominated for inscription is not historical center of Bologna but its Porticoes. They are almost everywhere in the center. They are of diverse age, size, shape, color, material and style. The most interesting examples can be found around Torre degli Asinelli, around S Stefano, in Strada Maggiore (PHOTO) and also directly in the Piazza Maggiore and the Quadrilatero district, but I do not know what exactly is nominated as TWHS. However, the world longest porticoes, which is mentioned in the nomination indeed, is located outside the historical walls of Bologna: It starts just behind the Porta Saragozza and goes ca. 3.5 km towards Basilica Madonna di San Luca, which is located on the top of green hill that is nicely visible from train in direction to Modena. The portico is merged with houses, of course, in the part closer to town, but it is a free-standing structure once it goes uphill to the Basilica. I must say I was not such an enthusiast to follow it and reach the sanctuary. It was quite hot day in June. …