Bologna Attractions

In 1993 the Morandi Museum was opened on the upper floor of the Palazzo d'Accursio. On display are over 200 paintings, water-colors, drawings and etchings by the Bolognese painter G. Morandi (1890-1964), mainly donated by his family. His studio has also been reconstructed here together with his extensive library.

To the south of San Petronio, in Via dell'Archiginnasio (No. 2) in Bologna, is the Archeological Museum (Museo Civico Archeologico), with a collection of prehistoric and Etruscan material from the surrounding area, and other antiquities; the museum has the finest Egyptian department after those of Turin and Venice (Rooms III-V). The Greek department (Room VI) contains a head of Athena Lemnia (copy of a work by Phidias, fifth century B.C.).

In Via d'Azeglio, is the Palazzo Bevilacqua, built in 1474-82 in the Early Renaissance style of the Florentine palaces, with a fine courtyard and a beautiful facade.

The life of Bologna centers around two adjoining squares (both pedestrian precincts), the Piazza Maggiore and the Piazza del Nettuno. In the Piazza del Nettuno is the Neptune Fountain by Giambologna (1563-67), one of the finest fountains of the 16th century.

The west side of the Piazza del Nettuno and Piazza Maggiore is occupied by the Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall), an extensive Gothic building begun in 1290 and largely rebuilt in 1425- 30. Above the main entrance (1555) is a bronze statue (1580) of Pope Gregory XIII, a native of Bologna. On the second floor is the Municipal Art Gallery with the Collezioni Comunal D'Art.

On the north side of the Piazza Maggiore is the former Palazzo del Podestà (1201; rebuilt from 1484 onwards in Early Renaissance style), with a tower, Torre dell'Arengo dating from 1212.

La Piazzola, a market in central Bologna, is open every Friday and Saturday.

From the museum the Via dell'Archiginnasio, with the Portico del Pavaglione and its numerous shops, runs south to the Piazza Galvani, where stands a marble statue of the Bologna-born physiologist Luigi Galvani (1737-98), discoverer of the "Galvanic discharges" (though he himself interpreted them wrongly). On the left is the Archiginnasio (1562-63), until 1803 occupied by the university (with the old anatomy lecture-room, the Teatro Anatomico) and now housing the Municipal Library (600,000 volumes).

Nearby the Town Hall is the Gothic Palazzo di Re Enzo (restored in 1905), in which Enzo, the poet son of Frederick II, was kept prisoner from 1249 to 1272.

Via d'Azeglio runs by way of Via Marsili to the Piazza San Domenico, in which are two columns bearing statues of Saint Dominic and the Virgin, and the Gothic tombs of two learned lawyers Rolandino de' Passeggeri (d. 1300) and Egidio Foscherari.