﻿We are taking you to Bologna, one of the great cities of Italy, quite famous for its food.
Although here they do not eat baloney. They have a similar meat they call mortadella, and they don't
eat spaghetti bolognese. They call that red sauce a ragu. And they never serve it on spaghetti, more
likely on tagliatelle and other pastas. Bologna is also famous for its university, the oldest in
the world, and the well-preserved historic center, one of the largest in the country,
accented with those two prominent medieval towers which have become the symbol of the city.
But there is one particular feature that makes this city unique in all the world. It has the
longest collection of covered sidewalks. It's called a portico, which is a roof over the
sidewalk that is held up by columns. The plural in Italian is portici, or an English porticoes.
You might also call them arcades or loggia or colonnades. These sheltered sidewalks extend
for 38 kilometers in the city, with another 15 kilometers reaching beyond the center. They have
such tremendous cultural and historic importance that UNESCO has declared them a World Heritage
site. This is the world's longest collection of sheltered sidewalks, and many of the piazzas
are surrounded by porticoes. So in this program, will be combining a look at the porticoed roads,
as well as some of the more interesting piazzas that have porticoes around them.
These arcades serve two basic functions. One is to provide shelter from the sun, the rain,
the occasional snow, while they also enable the buildings to extend out over the sidewalk,
creating additional floor space in the building's upper levels. Perhaps even more importantly, the
porticoes provide an outdoor living room, a shared community space where people can interact, serving
as crossroads of civic life. A place where you are at home, but also out in the world. A meeting
place to stop and chat, run into neighbors, make new friends, do a little smooching,
maybe fall in love. These arcades provide a social network that ties this city together.
Porticoes also create a delightful ambiance, a sheltered area that brings the outdoors in
and the indoors out. It's kind of an in-between space that encourages pedestrian traffic while
increasing access to the many shops that line these streets, which can display products for
sale in outdoor stands and in the old days were used by craftsmen for making things. It's like
an early version of our modern shopping malls. Porticoes also provide a comfortable setting for
the numerous outdoor cafes and restaurants that you'll find throughout the city. You will often
see the restaurant expanding out beyond the portico into the adjacent street or piazza,
creating additional useful spaces, which gives customers the choice to sit indoors or under the
portico or out in the open. A fine example of that is the very popular Piazza Santo Stefano,
which has a triangular shape with porticoes on two sides of medieval and Renaissance origin,
and the Church of Santo Stefano at the end with seven churches inside it,
including an octagonal portico in one of the ancient churches and a beautiful cloister
surrounded by two levels of columns and arches. We'll see more of this in a separate movie about
the churches of Bologna. Another interesting building on this piazza is Palazzo Salina,
with a portico clad in terracotta. Its nickname is the Palace of the Heads, because there are
300 faces looking down at us from the facade. The largest piazza in town just a few blocks away is
Piazza Maggiore, with more porticoes along several of the most important buildings in Bologna.
The main square of Bologna is always a busy place, daytime and right into the
evening. It's surrounded by the big church, the town hall cafes and little lanes leading
off from it that have many restaurants, lots of outdoor eateries. It's an amazing busy place
This large portico seen in daytime and again in early twilight with that tourist tram running
alongside of it is the busiest portico in town. We'll see more of it in a moment. On the north
side of the piazza is the Palazzo del Podesta, which is the oldest public building remaining in
Bologna, first built from the year 1253. And now its portico is the scene of a delightful outdoor
restaurant with nice views. Looking out at the piazza and Church of San Petronius, the biggest in
town. The tables spill right out into the adjacent piazza. Plenty of room here and on the right side,
the City hall. The Basilica of San Petronius is the world's 10th-largest church, and it would
have been the biggest if it had been finished to the original plans, but they never even quite
finished the facade. The famous fountain and celebrated statue of Neptune by Jean Bologna is
a most beautiful were executed to perfection in 1564. Notice the portico on the far side of the
piazza. This is the largest of all the porticoes in the central historic area. It forms part of the
facade of the Palazzo dei Banchi, containing some of the best shops in town and many restaurants
behind it in what's called the Quadrilateral. The arcade is 130 meters long, extending south
of the piazza, where it becomes the Portico del Pavaglione, running alongside Piazza Galvani
with an outdoor restaurant. And in the center a statue of Bologna native Luigi Galvani,
who back in the mid-18th century discovered the role of electricity in biological functions like
muscle contraction and transmission of nerve impulses. Exiting the south end of that piazza,
crossing via Farini, we enter what is the most beautiful portico, the only one with a frescoed
ceiling. It figures this is the building of the Bank of Italy. They had the money back in the
mid 19th century to create these elaborate scenes decorated with griffins, centaurs and garlands.
This illuminated portico of the Palazzo della Banca d'Italia runs alongside Piazza Cavour
with a green tree-shaded park in the middle and porticoed buildings all around it. Some buildings
extended their upper floors just a little bit so that they did not need external columns to
support that extension. It gives us some insight into the evolution of porticoes. Some early ones
were simple extensions that were held up by wooden supports rather than columns going down to the
ground. But after several fires destroyed parts of the city, the government decreed they'll all be
made from stone or brick. Porticoes were greatly expanded after the year 1288, when a new law was
created that required that all new houses had to be built with a portico and existing homes that
did not have one were required to add them. Later laws established requirements for minimum height
and width and types of building materials. Those rules were established many centuries ago and are
still in effect today, along with more recent regulations that protect historic preservation
and integrity of the city center. But why was it so important to expand the upper floors of
these buildings? Back in the Middle Ages, when the portico were first developed, Bologna was
already a densely populated city, and then when they opened the world's oldest university in
the 11th century, many students moved in from Italy and beyond, as well as other foreigners,
which created tremendous need for more housing. So this extension of the building was especially
important to create that expanded living space. And sometimes homeless students and others could
spend the night outdoors, but under the shelter of the porticoes. Some of them would have been
curtained off at night to provide sleeping accommodations for the poorest students.
You can get around for a good view of the porticoes by either walking,
maybe rent a bicycle, or take one of these tourist trams, which provide a little one-hour
round-trip through the center of town, giving you access to see many different kinds of porticoes.
This will take you along one of the main streets of downtown, which follows the path of an original
ancient Roman road, the Via Emilia, which now changes names from Ugo Bassi to Rizzoli
and Strada Maggiore. It's the busiest shopping street of town, and part of it has the arcades,
the loggia sheltering the many shops and outdoor cafes and restaurants and other parts do not. In
some places, we have the stores and buildings above flush with the sidewalks and no portico
out front. But there are some restaurants in the street and more of the arcades up ahead, including
a view of the statue of Ugo Bassi himself, who was one of the heroes of the war for independence.
This tourist tram is about the only motorized vehicle you'll see on the main streets here
coming up because it's a weekend. And on Saturday and Sunday, Bologna closes off most of the center
to all traffic, turning the streets over to the pedestrians. This has the effect of converting
this major street into a vast piazza. Many cities are struggling with traffic congestion, too many
automobiles, and trying to find a way to make the streets more friendly to pedestrians. Well,
here is a fine example, which is a big bonus for the visitor, because walking is always
the best way to see a place. The conversion of this busy street into a pedestrian mall,
even though it's just on the weekends, is a fine example of the movement towards complete streets.
And yet this tram ride does make it easy to get around, especially convenient right here in this
busy neighborhood as we roll along right into the heart of downtown and look up for a view of
the Asinelli Tower, at 97.2 meters high, the tallest medieval leaning tower in the world.
We are reaching the end of this busy street now called Via Rizzoli, and it widens into a bit of a
piazza. Notice how there's protective barriers and now the sidewalks are once again covered
by porticoes. This Piazza della Mercanzia is located at a busy intersect in which had been the
crossroads of the two main Roman streets back in the ancient days. One street leading onto Rimini
and the other street leading on to Ravenna. Here you can see the foundation of the two tall towers,
Garisenda at 48 meters high, Asinelli towering above that 97.2 meters. Back in the Middle Ages,
Bologna was full of these towers, but now there are just 20 of them left. And also on the piazza
you will see this Palazzo della Mercanzia, which housed a forum of merchants from the
14th century through the 18th century. And then it became the seat of the Chamber of Commerce,
which it still is today. In Bologna the porticoes are public private partnerships where the arcades
are owned privately and yet open always to the public. A law created many centuries ago
established that the underlying loggia was to be used as a public space, even though it was
built by private citizens on private property centuries ago. It was kind of an expropriation
by the government. A foreshadowing of bologna's more recent political atmosphere which has been
on the left wing socialist side. Although lately with a more centrist government, these two giants
are on the facade of the Davia­ Bargellini Museum, showcasing painting, sculpture and applied arts.
And across the street we find the widest portico in all of bologna in front of the Church of Santa
Maria de Servi. It was built around the year 1300 to accommodate citizens who could not attend
religious rites inside the church because they had not been baptized so they could participate
outside in the portico. Now it functions more like a little piazza where the local kids can have some
fun tossing the ball around. Only pedestrians are allowed to use the porticoes, no bicycles,
skateboards, no scooters. Although you can always park or walk your bike here in this bicycle
friendly city. But in the old days you would have seen people riding horses in them. There was even
a height requirement to make sure they were tall enough for people to safely ride their horses. Now
the only non-humans you'll see in the arcades are dogs. There's plenty of dogs around, some who can
walk themselves while holding their own leash clever enough to open the shop door and stroll
inside for his treat. It's a friendly reminder about the quality of life here. These streets and
arcades are part of a residential neighborhood. You've got people living upstairs, including many
university students. We're close to the campus now as well as the regular working people of
the city. Some of these dogs are quite pampered, getting wheeled around in their own carriages.
Another benefit of porticoes is they shelter the ground floors, making them more habitable
by isolating them from the dirt and noise of the streets. The porticoes are also beautiful,
adding a nice architectural touch to the buildings. And it seems like each one of
the porticoes is a little different in design and detail than the others, with a variety of styles,
including Renaissance, Gothic, neoclassical, Belle Epoque, medieval Baroque, and modern. Of course,
porticoes were not invented here in Bologna. They have a long history going back a couple
of thousand years as far as ancient Greece, where the idea was widely used in the architecture of
temples and many other buildings, also ancient Rome, for example, in front of the Pantheon. Or
how about three and a half thousand years ago in Egypt, where they built the temple to Hatshepsut
with a colonnade design in the façade. Porticoes have been used by various cultures all around
the world. For example, many Spanish cities make extensive use of porticoes and they've
incorporated them into their Spanish colonial architecture as well, such as found in Cusco.
A more recent example is the East Portico of the United States Capitol Building. Porticoes
can line a street as a roof structure over a walkway, or they can just be a porch leading into
the entrance of a building. But here in Bologna, it's all about creating those sheltered walkways
along the street, which has been done here more extensively than any place else. Porticoes are
so important here that they were declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, which stated
they are an “expression and element of the city's identity.” UNESCO's states that the portico is “an
architectural model, but also a social one, a place of integration and exchange in which the
main protagonists of the city, citizens, migrants and students live and share time and ideas,
relationships and thoughts. It is a reference point for a sustainable urban lifestyle where
civil and religious spaces and residences of all social classes are perfectly integrated.
A place of continuous interchange of human values that permeates and shapes city life.”
This is the reason why the portico models were continuously exported elsewhere in Italy and in
Europe. The skillful use of materials, primarily, stone has allowed the constructive preservation
during the centuries. This approach has ensured an extraordinary state of conservation of most
of the porticoes. We frequently upload new movies. So please subscribe to our channel
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