Situation
Bologna, capital of the region Emilia-Romagna and the province Bologna, lies in the fertile Upper Italian plain under the northern end of the Apennines.
The town is the see of an archbishop and has a famous university. It has a character all
its own, with its long arcaded streets, its brick-built palaces, its numerous old churches, its curious leaning towers and the remains of its 8km/5mi circuit of 13th and 14th century walls.
Economy
Bologna's principal industries are the manufacture of pasta and sausages (particularly mortadella), shoe manufacture, chemicals, engineering and precision instruments. The world's largest fair of children's and young people's books is held here annually. The town is also famous for its culinary specialities, chief among them is the meat sauce "à la bolognese".
History
The town, known to the Etruscans as Felsina, became a Roman colony in 189 B.C.; the city center still shows the regular layout of a Roman camp. It was declared a free city by the Emperor Henry V in 1116, and thereafter became a member of the Lombard League and took an active part in the struggle against the Hohenstaufens. The Imperial School of Bologna, which is said to have been in existence as early as the fifth century, became a university in the 13th century - the oldest in Europe - and attracted students from many lands; in the 14th century it pioneered the teaching of human anatomy.
The noble families of the town, who were in constant conflict with the Papacy, managed to assert their authority in the 14th century, but in 1506 Pope Julius II was able to incorporate the town in the Papal State. In 1530 Charles V was crowned Emperor here - the last imperial coronation on Italian soil. In 1796 the town was incorporated in Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic. In 1816 it reverted to Papal rule, and in 1860 finally became part of a united Italy. During the last war there was heavy fighting near Bologna. In August 1980 80 people were killed in a bomb attack on the railroad station.
Art
The characteristic feature of the architecture of Bologna is the use of brick. The first buildings of any consequence date from the Gothic period (church of San Petronio). The Renaissance and Baroque are abundantly represented, outstanding among local architects being Fioravante Fioravantini (d. after 1430) and his son Rodolfo, known as Aristotele (d. 1486), Pellegrino Tibaldi (d. 1597) and Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1522), one of the great architectural theorists of the late Renaissance. Serlio's school of theater architects and painters achieved an international reputation in the 17th and 18th centuries through the work of the Bibiena family of Tuscany, laying the foundations of modern stagecraft.
Sculpture was practiced mainly by artists from other parts of Italy. Michelangelo worked in San Domenico in 1494.
In painting, the first artist to attain more than local fame was Francesco Francia (1450-1517). Later the academy founded by Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619) and carried on by Annibale and Agostino Carracci fostered the school known as Eclecticism, whose leading representatives were Guido Reni (1575-1642), Domenichino (1581-1668) and Guercino (1581-1666).
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