Bologna’s Museo Civico Medievale is a must-visit for those who still think people in the Middle Ages were backward, spent the entire day prostrated in prayer and waited for the Renaissance to wake them from their creative slumber. The beautiful art on display at the museum paints an entirely different…
In 2020 I was unfortunately unable to visit the Pinacoteca Nazionale, as the museum had closed temporarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was therefore quite eager to go to the Pinacoteca when I was back in Bologna four years later. On the way from Florence to Bologna it was…
The two towers of Bologna are the Torre degli Asinelli and Torre Garisenda. Together they are the emblematic icons of this city of students. In the past, Bologna had dozens of similar towers. These were not just defensive structures and lookout points, but also status symbols that rich families in…
The basilica of San Petronio is by far the largest church in all of Bologna, and also one of the largest in Italy. The building is 132 metres deep and 60 metres wide. The façade reaches a height of 51 metres and inside the vaults are at least 44 metres…
The Santa Maria dei Servi is the church of the Servites of Maria in Bologna. This order was founded in 1233 in Florence by a group of wealthy cloth traders. Official papal approval of the order had to wait until 1304. Construction of the Servite church in Bologna started in…
When we visited the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, we got the impression that tourists are not really welcome here. There was a large ‘no pictures’ sign (although the ban on photography does not seem to be strictly enforced) and very little light in the church, and the chapels with…
The complesso di Santo Stefano is a very special complex of churches, chapels, a courtyard and a cloister. Although the complex adjoins the Piazza Santo Stefano and a street named the Via Santo Stefano runs alongside the buildings towards the Porta Santo Stefano, the complex rather surprisingly does not have…
I have many travel guides about Italy. Almost all of them contain information about Bologna, but remarkably not a single one of them discusses the cathedral of the city. Apparently the Duomo of Bologna is fairly unknown and frequently skipped by tourists, which may have contributed to the common misconception…
Together with Franciscus of Assisi, Dominicus de Guzmán can be counted among the most important church reformers of the thirteenth century. He was born around the year 1170 in the kingdom of Castile, now part of Spain. At the end of 1216 Pope Honorius III (1216-1227) approved his new Order…
The church of San Francesco is an immense basilica in the centre of Bologna that stands about 500 metres west of the famous Piazza Maggiore. The apse of the edifice is a rather conspicuous part of the building, with huge flying buttresses that can be seen very well from Asinelli…