Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

is home to more than 1,000,000 people. It is known as the Fat City for its rich cuisine, and the Red City for its Spanish-style red tiled rooftops and, more recently, its leftist politics. It is also called the Learned City because it is home to the oldest university in the world. Originally Etruscan, the city has been an important urban center for centuries, first under the Etruscans (who called it ''Felsina''), then under the Celts as ''Bona'', later under the Romans (''Bonōnia''), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality and later '' signoria'', when it was among the largest European cities by population. Famous for its towers, churches and lengthy

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

es, Bologna has a well-preserved historical centre, thanks to a careful restoration and conservation policy which began at the end of the 1970s. Home to the oldest university in the Western world,Hunt Janin: "The university in medieval life, 1179–1499", McFarland, 2008, , p. 55f.de Ridder-Symoens, Hilde
''A History of the University in Europe: Volume 1, Universities in the Middle Ages''
Cambridge University Press, 1992, , pp. 47–55 the University of Bologna, established in AD 1088, the city has a large student population that gives it a cosmopolitan character. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, a UNESCO "City of Music" and became part of the Creative Cities Network. In 2021 UNESCO recognized the lengthy porticoes of the city as a World Heritage Site. Bologna is an important agricultural, industrial, financial and transport hub, where many large mechanical, electronic and food companies have their headquarters as well as one of the largest permanent trade fairs in Europe. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index (E-REGI) of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city and the 47th European city in terms of its economic growth rate.

History

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Traces of human habitation in the area of Bologna go back to the 3rd millennium BCE, with significant settlements from about the 9th century BCE ( Villanovan culture). The influence of Etruscan civilization reached the area in the 7th to 6th centuries, and the Etruscan city of ''Felsina'' was established at the site of Bologna by the end of the 6th century. By the 4th century BCE, the site was occupied by the Gaulish Boii, and it became a Roman colony and municipium with the name of ''Bonōnia'' in 196 BCE. During the waning years of the Western Roman Empire Bologna was repeatedly sacked by the Goths. It is in this period that legendary Bishop

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
basilica of Saint Stephen. Petronius is still revered as the patron saint of Bologna. In 727–28, the city was sacked and captured by the Lombards under King Liutprand, becoming part of that kingdom. These Germanic conquerors built an important new quarter, called "addizione longobarda" (Italian meaning "Longobard addition") near the complex of St. Stephen. In the last quarter of the 8th century, Charlemagne, at the request of Pope Adrian I, invaded the Lombard Kingdom, causing its eventual demise. Occupied by Frankish troops in 774 on behalf of the papacy, Bologna remained under imperial authority and prospered as a frontier mark of the Carolingian empire. Bologna was the center of a revived study of law, including the scholar Irnerius (''c'' 1050 – after 1125) and his famous students, the Four Doctors of Bologna. After the death of

Matilda of Tuscany Matilda of Tuscany ( it, Matilde di Canossa , la, Matilda, ; 1046 – 24 July 1115 or Matilda of Canossa after her ancestral castle of Canossa), also referred to as ("the Great Countess"), was a member of the House of Canossa (also known as th ...

in 1115, Bologna obtained substantial concessions from Emperor Henry V. However, when

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

subsequently attempted to strike down the deal, Bologna joined the Lombard League, which then defeated the imperial armies at the

Battle of Legnano The Battle of Legnano was a battle between the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and the troops of the Lombard League on May 29, 1176, near the town of Legnano in present-day Lombardy, in Italy. Although the presence of the enemy nearby wa ...

and established an effective autonomy at the

Peace of Constance The Peace of Constance (25 June 1183) was a privilege granted by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his son and co-ruler, Henry VI, King of the Romans, to the members of the Lombard League to end the state of rebellion (war) that had been ong ...

in 1183. Subsequently, the town began to expand rapidly and became one of the main commercial trade centres of northern Italy thanks to a system of canals that allowed barges and ships to come and go. Believed to have been established in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered the world's oldest university in continuous operation. The university originated as a centre for the study of

medieval Roman law Medieval Roman law is the continuation and development of ancient Roman law that developed in the European Late Middle Ages. Based on the ancient text of Roman law, ''Corpus iuris civilis'', it added many new concepts, and formed the basis of the la ...

under major glossators, including Irnerius. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch among its students.Nove secoli di storia
– Università di Bologna The medical school was especially renowned. By 1200, Bologna was a thriving commercial and artisanal centre of about 10,000 people. During a campaign to support the imperial cities of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

and

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...

against Bologna, Frederick II's son, King Enzo of Sardinia, was defeated and captured on 26 May 1249 at the Battle of Fossalta. Though the emperor demanded his release, Enzo was thenceforth kept a knightly prisoner in Bologna, in a palace that came to be named Palazzo Re Enzo after him. Every attempt to escape or to rescue him failed, and he died after more than 22 years in captivity. After the death of his half-brothers Conrad IV in 1254,

Frederick of Antioch Frederick of Antioch (''c''. 1223 – 1255/6) was an Italian nobleman who served as the imperial vicar of Tuscany from 1246 to 1250. He was an illegitimate son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, by an unidentified southern Italian noblewoman. ...

in 1256 and Manfred in 1266, as well as the execution of his nephew Conradin in 1268, he was the last of the Hohenstaufen heirs. During the late 1200s, Bologna was affected by political instability when the most prominent families incessantly fought for the control of the town. The free commune was severely weakened by decades of infighting, allowing the Pope to impose the rule of his envoy Cardinal Bertrand du Pouget in 1327. Du Pouget was eventually ousted by a popular rebellion and Bologna became a signoria under Taddeo Pepoli in 1334. By the arrival of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

in 1348, Bologna had 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, reduced to just 20,000 to 25,000 after the plague. In 1350, Bologna was conquered by archbishop Giovanni Visconti, the new lord of Milan. But following a rebellion by the town's governor, a renegade member of the Visconti family, Bologna was recuperated to the papacy in 1363 by Cardinal Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz after a long negotiation involving a huge indemnity paid to Bernabò Visconti, Giovanni's heir, who died in 1354. In 1376, Bologna again revolted against Papal rule and joined Florence in the unsuccessful War of the Eight Saints. However, extreme infighting inside the Holy See after the Western Schism prevented the papacy from restoring its domination over Bologna, so it remained relatively independent for some decades as an oligarchic republic. In 1401,

Giovanni I Bentivoglio Giovanni I (c. 1358 in Bologna – June 26, 1402 in Bologna) was the first ruler of Bologna from the Bentivoglio family, who rose to power among the faction-conflicts within the commune of Bologna. He ruled in 1401–02. On March 14, 1401, he ...

took power in a coup with the support of Milan, but the Milanese, having turned his back on them and allied with Florence, marched on Bologna and had Giovanni killed the following year. In 1442, Hannibal I Bentivoglio, Giovanni's nephew, recovered Bologna from the Milanese, only to be assassinated in a conspiracy plotted by Pope

Eugene IV Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...

three years later. But the signoria of the Bentivoglio family was then firmly established, and the power passed to his cousin

Sante Bentivoglio Sante I Bentivoglio (1426–June 24, 1462) was an Italian nobleman who ruled as tyrant or de facto prince of Bologna from 1445 to 1462. Officially the son of a poor blacksmith, he worked as a youth in the wool industry in Florence under another na ...

, who ruled until 1462, followed by Giovanni II. Giovanni II managed to resist the expansionist designs of

Cesare Borgia Cesare Borgia (; ca-valencia, Cèsar Borja ; es, link=no, César Borja ; 13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was an Italian ex- cardinal and '' condottiero'' (mercenary leader) of Aragonese (Spanish) origin, whose fight for power was a major ...

for some time, but on 7 October 1506, Pope Julius II issued a bull deposing and excommunicating Bentivoglio and placing the city under interdict. When the papal troops, along with a contingent sent by

Louis XII of France Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...

, marched against Bologna, Bentivoglio and his family fled. Julius II entered the city triumphantly on 10 November.

Early modern

The period of Papal rule over Bologna (1506–1796) has been generally evaluated by historians as one of severe decline. However, this was not evident in the 1500s, which were marked by some major developments in Bologna. In 1530, Emperor Charles V was crowned in Bologna, the last of the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

s to be crowned by the pope. In 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the

Palazzo dei Banchi Palazzo dei Banchi is a Renaissance-style palace façade located on the eastern flank of the Piazza Maggiore in the center of Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. In the 16th century when the present façade was constructed, and still, the P ...

were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the main building of the university. The period of Papal rule saw also the construction of many churches and other religious establishments, and the restoration of older ones. At this time, Bologna had ninety-six convents, more than any other Italian city. Painters working in Bologna during this period established the

Bolognese School The Bolognese School of painting, also known as the ''School of Bologna'', flourished between the 16th and 17th centuries in Bologna, which rivalled Florence and Rome as the center of painting in Italy. Its most important representatives i ...

which includes

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...

, Domenichino, Guercino and others of European fame.Raimond Van Marle. ''The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, Volume 4'' (1924) pp 394–481. Alberti History of Bologna 1590

It was only towards the end of the 16th century that severe signs of decline began to manifest. A series of plagues in the late 16th to early 17th century reduced the population of the city from some 72,000 in the mid-16th century to about 47,000 by 1630. During the Italian Plague of 1629–31 alone, Bologna lost up to a third of its population. In the mid-17th century, the population stabilized at roughly 60,000, slowly increasing to some 70,000 by the mid-18th century. The economy of Bologna started to show signs of severe decline as the global centres of trade shifted towards the Atlantic. The traditional silk industry was in a critical state. The university was losing students, who once came from all over Europe, because of the illiberal attitudes of the Church towards culture (especially after the trial of Galileo). Bologna continued to suffer a progressive deindustrialisation also in the 18th century. In the mid-1700s pope Benedict XIV, a Bolognese, tried to reverse the decline of the city with a series of reforms intended to stimulate the economy and promote the arts. However, these reforms achieved only mixed results. The pope's efforts to stimulate the decaying textile industry had little success, while he was more successful in reforming the tax system, liberalising trade and relaxing the oppressive system of censorship. The economic and demographic decline of Bologna became even more noticeable starting in the second half of the 18th century. In 1790 the city had 72,000 inhabitants, ranking as the second largest in the Papal States; however, this figure had remained unchanged for decades. During this period, Papal economic policies included heavy customs duties and concessions of monopolies to single manufacturers.

Modern history

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

entered Bologna on 19 June 1796. Napoleon briefly reinstated the ancient mode of government, giving power to the Senate, which however had to swear fealty to the short-lived Cispadane Republic, created as a client state of the

French First Republic In the history of France, the First Republic (french: Première République), sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic (french: République française), was founded on 21 September 1792 ...

at the congress of Reggio (27 December 1796 – 9 January 1797) but succeeded by the Cisalpine Republic on 9 July 1797, later by the Italian Republic and finally the Kingdom of Italy. After the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 restored Bologna to the Papal States. Papal rule was contested in the uprisings of 1831. The insurrected provinces planned to unite as the ''

Province Italiane Unite United Italian Provinces or Italian United Provinces ( it, Provincie Unite Italiane, in modern Italian: ''Province Unite Italiane'') was a short-lived state (a Republic) that was established in 1831 in some territories of the Papal States ( Romag ...

'' with Bologna as the capital. Pope Gregory XVI asked for Austrian help against the rebels. Metternich warned French king Louis Philippe I against intervention in Italian affairs, and in the spring of 1831, Austrian forces marched across the Italian peninsula, defeating the rebellion by 26 April. By the mid-1840s, unemployment levels were very high and traditional industries continued to languish or disappear; Bologna became a city of economic disparity with the top 10 percent of the population living off rent, another 20 percent exercising professions or commerce and 70 percent working in low-paid, often insecure manual jobs. The Papal census of 1841 reported 10,000 permanent beggars and another 30,000 (out of a total population of 70,000) who lived in poverty. In the revolutions of 1848 the Austrian garrisons which controlled the city on behalf of the Pope were temporarily expelled, but eventually came back and crushed the revolutionaries. Papal rule finally ended in the aftermath of Second War of Italian Independence, when the French and Piedmontese troops expelled the Austrians from Italian lands, on 11 and 12 March 1860, Bologna voted to join the new Kingdom of Italy. In the last decades of the 19th century, Bologna once again thrived economically and socially. In 1863 Naples was linked to Rome by railway, and the following year Bologna to Florence. Bolognese moderate agrarian elites, that supported liberal insurgencies against the papacy and were admirers of the British political system and of free trade, envisioned a unified national state that would open a bigger market for the massive agricultural production of the Emilian plains. Indeed, Bologna gave Italy one of its first prime ministers, Marco Minghetti. After World War I, Bologna was heavily involved in the Biennio Rosso socialist uprisings. As a consequence, the traditionally moderate elites of the city turned their back on the progressive faction and gave their support to the rising

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

movement of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

. Dino Grandi, a high-ranking Fascist party official and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, remembered for being an Anglophile, was from Bologna. During the interwar years, Bologna developed into an important manufacturing centre for food processing, agricultural machinery and metalworking. The Fascist regime poured in massive investments, for example with the setting up of a giant tobacco manufacturing plant in 1937.

World War II

Bologna suffered extensive damage during World War II. The strategic importance of the city as an industrial and railway hub connecting northern and central Italy made it a target for the Allied forces. On 24 July 1943, a massive aerial bombardment destroyed a significant part of the historic city centre and killed about 200 people. The main railway station and adjoining areas were severely hit, and 44% of the buildings in the centre were listed as having been destroyed or severely damaged. The city was heavily bombed again on 25 September. The raids, which this time were not confined to the city centre, left 2,481 people dead and 2,000 injured. By the end of the war, 43% of all buildings in Bologna had been destroyed or damaged. After the armistice of 1943, the city became a key centre of the

Italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

. On 7 November 1944, a pitched battle around

Porta Lame Porta can refer to: People * Porta (rapper) (born 1988), stagename of Christian Jiménez Bundo, a Spanish rap singer * Bernardo Porta (1758–1829), Italian composer active in France * Bianca Della Porta (born 1991), Canadian ice hockey and rugby ...

, waged by partisans of the 7th Brigade of the ''Gruppi d'Azione Patriottica'' against

and Nazi occupation forces, did not succeed in triggering a general uprising, despite being one of the largest resistance-led urban conflicts in the European theatre. Resistance forces entered Bologna on the morning of 21 April 1945. By this time, the Germans had already largely left the city in the face of the Allied advance, spearheaded by Polish forces advancing from the east during the Battle of Bologna which had been fought since 9 April. First to arrive in the centre was the 87th Infantry Regiment of the Friuli Combat Group under general Arturo Scattini, who entered the centre from ''Porta Maggiore'' to the south. Since the soldiers were dressed in British outfits, they were initially thought to be part of the allied forces; when the local inhabitants heard the soldiers were speaking Italian, they poured out onto the streets to celebrate.

Cold War period

In the post-war years, Bologna became a thriving industrial centre as well as a political stronghold of the Italian Communist Party. Between 1945 and 1999, the city was helmed by an uninterrupted succession of

mayors In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities ...

from the PCI and its successors, the Democratic Party of the Left and Democrats of the Left, the first of whom was

Giuseppe Dozza Giuseppe Dozza (29 November 1901 – 28 December 1974) was an Italian politician, the first Mayor of Bologna after the end of World War II. Biography The resistance One of the founders of the Communist Party of Italy, Dozza was immediately pe ...

. At the end of the 1960s the city authorities, worried by massive gentrification and suburbanisation, asked Japanese starchitect Kenzo Tange to sketch a master plan for a

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

north of Bologna; however, the project that came out in 1970 was evaluated as too ambitious and expensive. Eventually the city council, in spite of vetoing Tange's master plan, decided to keep his project for a new exhibition centre and business district. At the end of 1978 the construction of a tower block and several diverse buildings and structures started. In 1985 the headquarters of the regional government of Emilia-Romagna moved in the new district. In 1977, Bologna was the scene of rioting linked to the Movement of 1977, a spontaneous political movement of the time. The police shooting of a far-left activist,

Francesco Lorusso Pierfrancesco Lorusso (Bologna, 7 October 1952 – Bologna, 11 March 1977), generally known as Francesco Lorusso, was an Italian militant of the far-left organization Lotta Continua who was shot dead by carabinieri in Bologna on 11 March 1977 durin ...

, sparked two days of street clashes. On 2 August 1980, at the height of the " years of lead", a terrorist bomb was set off in the central railway station of Bologna killing 85 people and wounding 200, an event which is known in Italy as the Bologna massacre. In 1995, members of the neo-fascist group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari were convicted for carrying out the attack, while Licio Gelli—Grand Master of the underground Freemason lodge

Propaganda Due Propaganda Due (; P2) was a Masonic lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, founded in 1877. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it transformed into a criminal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-leftist, pseudo-Masonic, a ...

(P2)—was convicted for hampering the investigation, together with three agents of the secret military intelligence service SISMI (including Francesco Pazienza and Pietro Musumeci). Commemorations take place in Bologna on 2 August each year, culminating in a concert in the main square.

21st century

In 1999, the long tradition of left-wing mayors was interrupted by the victory of independent centre-right candidate

Giorgio Guazzaloca Giorgio Guazzaloca (6 February 1944 – 26 April 2017) was an Italian politician, Mayor of Bologna from 1999 to 2004. Biography Guazzaloca left school when he was 14 and started working in his father's butcher's shop, opening one of his own i ...

. However, Bologna reverted to form in 2004 when

Sergio Cofferati Sergio Cofferati (born 30 January 1948) is an Italian trade unionist and politician. Secretary general of CGIL from 1994 to 2002, Mayor of Bologna for the Democrats of the Left from 2004 to 2009 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 20 ...

, a former trade union leader, unseated Guazzaloca. The next centre-left mayor, Flavio Delbono, elected in June 2009, resigned in January 2010 after being involved in a corruption scandal. After a 15-month period in which the city was administered under

Anna Maria Cancellieri Annamaria Cancellieri (born 22 October 1943) is an Italian official and prefect who served as Minister of Interior in the Monti Cabinet and Minister of Justice in the Letta Cabinet. Early life and education Cancellieri was born in Rome on 22 Oct ...

(as a state-appointed prefect),

Virginio Merola Virginio Merola (born 14 February 1955) is an Italian politician. Merola is a member of the Democratic Party and former Mayor of Bologna. Early life Virginio Merola was born on 14 February 1955 in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in the Province of Case ...

was elected as mayor, leading a left-wing coalition comprising the Democratic Party, Left Ecology Freedom and Italy of Values. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, Merola was confirmed mayor, defeating the conservative candidate, Lucia Borgonzoni. In 2021, after ten years of Merola's mayorship, one of his closest allies, Matteo Lepore, was elected mayor with 61.9% of votes, becoming the most voted mayor of Bologna since the introduction of the direct elections in 1995.Elezioni 2021: Lepore vince a Bologna con una percentuale travolgente
''ANSA''

Geography

Territory

Bologna is situated on the edge of the Po Plain at the foot of the

Apennine Mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

, at the meeting of the Reno and Savena river valleys. As Bologna's two main watercourses flow directly to the sea, the town lies outside of the drainage basin of the River Po. The Province of Bologna stretches from the western edge of the Po Plain on the border with

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

to the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The centre of the town is

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

(while elevation within the municipality ranges from in the suburb of Corticella to in Sabbiuno and the Colle della Guardia). The Province of Bologna stretches from the Po Plain into the Apennines; the highest point in the province is the peak of Corno alle Scale (in Lizzano in Belvedere) at above sea level.

Climate

Bologna has a mid-latitude, four-season

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

( Köppen climate classification: ''Cfa''). Annual precipitation oscillates between around and , with the majority generally falling in spring and autumn. Snow is not uncommon between late November and early March; one of the snowiest months of the past decade was February 2012.

Government

Municipal government

The legislative body of the municipality is the City Council (''Consiglio Comunale''), which is composed by 48 councillors elected every five years with a corrected proportional system (granting the majority to the list or alliance of lists which receives more votes), contextually to the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Committee (''Giunta Comunale''), composed by 12 assessors, that is nominated and presided over by a directly elected Mayor. The current mayor of Bologna is Matteo Lepore ( PD), elected on 4 October 2021 with 61.9% of the votes. The municipality of Bologna is subdivided into six administrative Boroughs (''Quartieri''), down from the former nine before the 2015 administrative reform. Each Borough is governed by a Council (''Consiglio'') and a President, elected contextually to the city Mayor. The urban organization is governed by the Italian Constitution (art. 114). The Boroughs have the power to advise the Mayor with nonbinding opinions on a large spectrum of topics (environment, construction, public health, local markets) and exercise the functions delegated to them by the City Council; in addition, they are supplied with an autonomous founding to finance local activities.

Provincial and regional government

Bologna is the capital of the eponymous metropolitan city and of Emilia-Romagna, one of the twenty regions of Italy. While the Province of Bologna has a population of 1,007,644, making it the twelfth most populated province of Italy, Emilia-Romagna ranks as the sixth most populated region of Italy, with about 4.5 million inhabitants, more than 7% of the national total. The seat of the regional government is

Fiera District The Fiera di Bologna is the business district of the city of Bologna, in central Italy. The area includes a trade exhibition centre and several office towers occupied by the regional government of Emilia-Romagna and various private companies. Hi ...

, a tower complex designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange in 1985. According to the last governmental dispositions concerning administrative reorganisation, the urban area of Bologna is one of the 15 Metropolitan municipalities (''città metropolitane''), new administrative bodies fully operative since 1 January 2015. The new Metro municipalities, giving large urban areas the administrative powers of a province, are conceived for improving the performance of local administrations and to slash local spending by better co-ordinating the municipalities in providing basic services (including transport, school and social programs) and environment protection. In this policy framework, the Mayor of Bologna is designated to exercise the functions of Metropolitan mayor (''Sindaco metropolitano''), presiding over a Metropolitan Council formed by 18 mayors of municipalities within the Metro municipality. The Metropolitan City of Bologna is headed by the Metropolitan Mayor (''Sindaco metropolitano'') and by the Metropolitan Council (''Consiglio metropolitano''). Since 21 June 2016

, as mayor of the capital city, has been the mayor of the Metropolitan City.

Cityscape

View_from_the_Torre_degli_Asinelli,_Bologna_3

Bologna, Santuario della Madonna di San Luca 004

Until the late 19th century, when a large-scale urban renewal project was undertaken, Bologna was one of the few remaining large walled cities in Europe; to this day and despite having suffered considerable bombing damage in 1944, Bologna's historic centre is Europe's second largest, containing an immense wealth of important medieval, renaissance, and baroque artistic monuments. Bologna developed along the Via Emilia as an Etruscan and later Roman colony; the Via Emilia still runs straight through the city under the changing names of Strada Maggiore, Rizzoli, Ugo Bassi, and San Felice. Due to its Roman heritage, the central streets of Bologna, today largely pedestrianized, follow the grid pattern of the Roman settlement. The original Roman ramparts were supplanted by a high medieval system of fortifications, remains of which are still visible, and finally by a third and final set of ramparts built in the 13th century, of which numerous sections survive. No more than twenty medieval defensive towers remain out of up to 180 that were built in the 12th and 13th centuries before the arrival of unified civic government. The most famous of the towers of Bologna are the central "Due Torri" (''Asinelli'' and ''Garisenda''), whose iconic leaning forms provide a popular symbol of the town. The cityscape is further enriched by its elegant and extensive porticoes, for which the city is famous. In total, there are some of

es in the city's historical centre (over in the city proper), which make it possible to walk for long distances sheltered from the elements. The Portico di San Luca is possibly the world's longest. It connects

Porta Saragozza The Porta Saragozza of Bologna was one of the gates or portals in the medieval walls of this city. The gate was built in the 13-14th centuries, and by 1334 it was provided with a drawbridge crossing a moat. It was not used much until 1674, whe ...

(one of the twelve gates of the ancient walls built in the Middle Ages, which circled a part of the city) with the

Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca The Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca is a basilica church in Bologna, northern Italy, sited atop a forested hill, Colle or Monte della Guardia, some 300 metres above the city plain, just south-west of the historical centre of the city. While ...

, a church begun in 1723 on the site of an 11th-century edifice which had already been enlarged in the 14th century, prominently located on a hill () overlooking the town, which is one of Bologna's main landmarks. The windy 666 vault arcades, almost four kilometres () long, effectively links ''San Luca'', as the church is commonly called, to the city centre. Its porticos provide shelter for the traditional procession which every year since 1433 has carried a Byzantine icon of the Madonna with Child attributed to Luke the Evangelist down to the Bologna Cathedral during the Feast of the Ascension. In 2021, the porticoes were named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

San Petronio Basilica The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petr ...

, built between 1388 and 1479 (but still unfinished), is the tenth-largest church in the world by volume, 132 metres long and 66 metres wide, while the vault reaches 45 metres inside and 51 metres in the facade. With its volume of 258,000 m³, it is the largest (Gothic or otherwise) church built of bricks of the world. The Basilica of Saint Stephen and its sanctuary are among the oldest structures in Bologna, having been built starting from the 8th century, according to the tradition on the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Egyptian goddess Isis. The Basilica of Saint Dominic is an example of Romanic architecture from the 13th century, enriched by the monumental tombs of great Bolognese glossators Rolandino de'Passeggeri and Egidio Foscherari. Basilicas of St Francis,

Santa Maria dei Servi Santa Maria dei Servi may refer to the following churches in Italy: * Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna * Santa Maria dei Servi (Siena) The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi is a Romanesque style, Roman Catholic church in the Terzo of San Martino ...

and San Giacomo Maggiore are other magnificent examples of 14th-century architecture, the latter also featuring Renaissance artworks such as the Bentivoglio Altarpiece by Lorenzo Costa. Finally, the Church of San Michele in Bosco is a 15th-century religious complex located on a hill not far from the city's historical center. Bologna Panorama

Economy

In terms of total GDP, the Metropolitan City of Bologna generated a value of about €35 billion ($40.6 billion) in 2017, equivalent to €34,251 ($40,165) per capita, the third highest figure among Italian provinces (after Milan and Bolzano/Bozen). The economy of Bologna is characterized by a flourishing industrial sector, traditionally centered on the transformation of agricultural and zootechnical products ( Eridania, Granarolo,

Segafredo Zanetti Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group is an Italian coffee company that owns brands such as ''Segafredo'' and ''MJB''. With turnover of around US$1.2 billion per year, it claims to be the biggest private company in the coffee industry. The group Today, ...

, ), machinery (, IMA, Sacmi), construction equipment ( Maccaferri); energy ( Hera Group), automotive (

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Au ...

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) ...

), footwear, textile, engineering, chemical, printing and publishing ( Cappelli, il Mulino, , Zanichelli). In particular, Bologna is considered the centre of the so-called "packaging valley", an area well known for its high concentration of firms specialised in the manufacturing of automatic

packaging machine Packaging machinery is used throughout all packaging operations, involving primary packages to distribution packs. This includes many packaging processes: fabrication, cleaning, filling, sealing, combining, labeling, overwrapping, palletizing. ...

s (, IMA). Furthermore, Bologna is well known for its dense network of cooperatives, a feature that dates back to the social struggles of farmers and workers in the 1800s and that today produces up to a third of its GDP and occupies 265 thousand people in the Emilia-Romagna region.

Transport

Bologna is home to the Guglielmo Marconi International Airport, the seventh busiest Italian airport for passenger traffic (8 million passengers handled in 2017). Bologna Centrale railway station is one of Italy's most important train hubs thanks to the city's strategic location as a crossroad between north–south and east–west routes. It serves 58 million passengers annually. The city hosts several minor railway stations (see List of railway stations in Bologna). Bologna San Donato classification yard, with 33 railway tracks, used to be the largest freight hub in Italy by size and traffic. Since 2018, it has been repurposed as the Bologna San Donato railway test circuit.Gian Guido Turchi, ''Bologna San Donato: metamorfosi di un impianto'', in I Treni 434 (2020), pages 12–17, Editrice Trasporti su Rotaie, ISSN 0392-4602. The city is also served by a large network of public bus lines, including trolleybus lines, operated since 2012 by Trasporto Passeggeri Emilia-Romagna (TPER). A large commuter rail service is currently under development (see Bologna metropolitan railway service), and a four line tram network is also planned (see

Trams in Bologna The Bologna tramway network ( it, Rete tranviaria di Bologna) was an important part of the public transport network of Bologna, Italy. It was established in 1880 and discontinued in 1963. On 7 March 2019, the mayor of Bologna revealed plans to bui ...

Bologna public transportation statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Bologna, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 53 min. 9% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 12 min, while 16% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 5.4 km, while 7% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Demographics

At the end of 2016, the city proper had a population of 388,254 (while 1 million live in the greater Bologna area), located in the province of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, of whom 46.7% were male and 53.3% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 12.86 percent of the population compared to pensioners who number 27.02 percent. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age of Bologna resident is 51 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Bologna grew by 0.0 percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent. The current birth rate of Bologna is 8.07 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.

Education

The University of Bologna, conventionally said to have been founded in 1088 by glossators Irnerius and

Pepo PEPO Lappeenranta (abbreviated PEPO) is a football club from Lappeenranta in Finland. The club was formed in 1958 and their home ground is at the Kimpinen Sports Centre. The men's first team currently plays in the Ykkönen (Second Division). ...

, is the oldest university in Europe. It was an important centre of European intellectual life during the Middle Ages, attracting scholars from Italy and throughout Europe. The Studium, as it was originally known, began as a loosely organized teaching system with each master collecting fees from students on an individual basis. The location of the early University was thus spread throughout the city, with various colleges being founded to support students of a specific nationality. Bologna,_Archiginnasio,_Teatro_anatomico_(6)

Bologna,_Archiginnasio,_Teatro_anatomico_(6)

In the Napoleonic era, the headquarters of the university were moved to their present location on

Via Zamboni Via or VIA may refer to the following: Science and technology * MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter * ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae * Via (electronics), a through-connection * VIA Technologies, a Taiwan ...

, in the northeastern sector of the city centre. Today, the university's 11 schools, 33 departments, and 93 libraries are spread across the city and include four subsidiary campuses in nearby Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, and Rimini. Noteworthy students present at the university in centuries past included Dante, Petrarch, Thomas Becket, Pope Nicholas V, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Copernicus. Laura Bassi, appointed in 1732, became the first woman to officially teach at a university in Europe. In more recent history,

Luigi Galvani Luigi Galvani (, also ; ; la, Aloysius Galvanus; 9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, who studied animal electricity. In 1780, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs ...

, the discoverer of bioelectromagnetics, and

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

, the pioneer of radio technology, also worked at the university. The University of Bologna remains one of the most respected and dynamic post-secondary educational institutions in Italy. To this day, Bologna is still very much a university town, with over 80,000 enrolled students in 2015. This community includes a great number of Erasmus, Socrates, and overseas students. The university's botanical garden, the

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna, also known as the Orto Botanico di Bologna, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Bologna. It is located at Via Irnerio, 42, 40126 Bologna, Italy, and open daily except Mondays. Establi ...

, was established in 1568; it is the fourth oldest in Europe. Johns Hopkins University maintains its Bologna Center in the city, which hosts one of the overseas campuses of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). SAIS Bologna was founded in 1955 as the first campus of a US post-graduate school to open in Europe. It was inspired by Marshall Plan efforts to build a cultural bridge between America and Europe. Today, the Bologna Center also hosts the ''Associazione italo-americana "Luciano Finelli"'', which supports cross-cultural awareness and exchange between Italy and the United States.

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

, Indiana University,

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, and the University of California also have campuses or antennas in the city. In addition, Bologna hosts a music school, Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini, established in 1804, and an art school,

Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna The Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna ("academy of fine arts of Bologna") is a public tertiary academy of fine art in Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. It has a campus in Cesena. Giorgio Morandi taught engraving at the Accademia f ...

, founded in 1802. Both institutions were born as part of the reforms introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Culture

Over the centuries, Bologna has acquired many nicknames: "the fat" (''la grassa'') refers to its cuisine, in which the most famous specialities are prepared using rich meats (especially pork), egg pasta and dairy products, such as butter and Parmesan. Another nickname that has been given to the city is "the red" (''la rossa''), which was originally used as a reference to the colour of the buildings in the city centre, has later become connected with the communist ideology supported by the majority of the population, in particular after World War II: until the election of a centre-right mayor in 1999, the city was renowned as a bastion of the Italian Communist Party. The centre-left regained power again in the 2004 mayoral elections, with the election of

. It was one of the first European cities to experiment with the concept of free public transport. Bologna has also two other nicknames: the first one, "the towered" (''la turrita'') refers to the high number of medieval towers that can be found in the city, even if today only 24 towers are still standing. The second one, "the learned" (''la dotta'') is a reference to its university.

University

Bologna's university was founded in 1088 and it is considered the oldest university in the Western world. According to the QS University Rankings, Bologna university is the 4th-ranked Italian university and the 180th-ranked in the world. The high number of students coming from all over Italy and the world (in Bologna there are several campuses of foreign universities such as Johns Hopkins University, Dickinson College, Indiana University, Brown University, University of California and more) has a considerable effect on everyday life. While it contributes to livening up the city centre (an area in which the average age of the residents is very high) and it also helps to promote cultural initiatives, on the other hand, it creates public order and waste management problems that stem from the lively nightlife of the university district.

Entertainment and performing arts

The city of Bologna became a UNESCO City of Music on 26 May 2006. According to UNESCO, "As the first Italian city to be appointed to the Network, Bologna has demonstrated a rich musical tradition that is continuing to evolve as a vibrant factor of contemporary life and creation. It has also shown a strong commitment to promoting music as an important vehicle for inclusion in the fight against racism and in an effort to encourage economic and social development. Fostering a wide range of genres from classical to electronic, jazz, folk and opera, Bologna offers its citizens a musical vitality that deeply infiltrates the city's professional, academic, social and cultural facets." The theatre was a popular form of entertainment in Bologna until the 16th century. The first public theater was the Teatro alla Scala, active since 1547 in Palazzo del Podestà. An important figure of Italian Bolognese theatre was Alfredo Testoni, the playwright, and author of '' Cardinal Lambertini'', which has had great theatrical success since 1905, repeated on screen by the Bolognese actor Gino Cervi. In 1998, the City of Bologna initiated the project "Bologna dei Teatri" (Bologna of the Theatres), an association of the major theatrical facilities in the city. This is a circuit of theatres which offer diverse theatrical opportunities, ranging from Bolognese dialect to contemporary dance, but with a communications strategy and promoting unity. Specifically, the shows on the bill in various theatres participating in the project are advertised weekly through a single poster. Bologna's opera house is the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. The Orchestra Mozart, whose music director was Claudio Abbado until his death in 2014, was created in 2004. Bologna hosts a number of international music, art, dance and film festivals, including Angelica, ''Bologna'' and ''Contemporanea'' (festivals on contemporary music), Bolognafestival (international classical music festival), Bologna Jazz Festival, Biografilm Festival (devoted to biographical movies), BilBolBul (a comics festival), Danza Urbana (a street contemporary dance festival), F.I.S.Co (festival on contemporary art, now merged into Live Arts Week), Future Film Festival (animation and special effects), ''Il Cinema Ritrovato'' (film festival about rare and forgotten movies), Live Arts Week, Gender Bender (festival on gender identity, sexual orientation, and body representation), Homework festival (electronic music festival), Human Rights Film Festival, Some Prefer Cake (lesbian film festival), Zecchino d'Oro (a children's song contest).

Cuisine

Bologna is renowned for its culinary tradition. It is the home of the famous

Bolognese sauce Bolognese sauce (, ; known in Italian as ''ragù alla bolognese'', , ''ragù bolognese'', or simply ''ragù'') is a meat-based sauce in Italian cuisine, typical of the city of Bologna. It is customarily used to dress ''tagliatelle al ragù'' and ...

, a meat-based pasta sauce. In Italy, it is called '' ragù'' and is substantially different from the variety found worldwide. In Bologna, the sauce is used only as a dressing for tagliatelle, and serving it with spaghetti is considered odd. Situated in the fertile Po River Valley, the rich local cuisine depends heavily on meats and cheeses. As in all of Emilia-Romagna, the production of cured pork meats such as prosciutto,

mortadella Mortadella () is a large Italian cuisine, Italian sausage or luncheon meat (''salumi, salume'' ) made of finely hashed or ground heat-cured pork, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck o ...

and salumi is an important part of the local food industry. Well-regarded nearby vineyards include Pignoletto dei Colli Bolognesi, Lambrusco di Modena and Sangiovese di Romagna. Tagliatelle with ragù, lasagne, tortellini served in broth, and

, the original Bologna sausage, are among the local specialties. Traditional Bolognese desserts are often linked to holidays, such as ''fave dei morti'' ("cookies of the dead"), multi-coloured almond paste cookies made for All Saints' Day, jam-filled raviole cookies that are served on Saint Joseph's Day, and carnival sweets known as ''sfrappole'', a light and delicate fried pastry topped with powder sugar, ''certosino'' or ''panspeziale'' ("carthusian" or "apothecary-cake"), a spicy cake served on Christmas. ''Torta di riso'', a custard-like cake made of almonds, rice and amaretto, is made throughout the year, as well as the zuppa inglese.

Sport

Differently from the vaste majority of Italian cities, in Bologna, basketball is the most followed sport. In fact, the sporting nickname for Bologna is ''Basket City'' in reference to the successes of the town's two rival historic basketball clubs, Virtus and Fortitudo. Of the two, the former won, among others, 16 Italian basketball championships, two Euroleagues, one EuroCup and one FIBA Saporta Cup, making them one of the most influential European basketball clubs; the latter won two league titles between 1999 and 2005. The Italian Basketball League, which operates both Lega A and LegADue, has its headquarters in Bologna. There are two indoor arenas in the city: PalaDozza, the oldest one with a capacity of 5,570 seats, and Segafredo Arena, a temporary venue with a capacity of 9,980 seats. Stadio Dall'Ara 01-02-2020

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

also has a strong tradition in Bologna. The city's main club, Bologna F.C. 1909, have won seven Italian league championships (the latest in 1963–64), which makes them the sixth most successful team in the history of the league; in their heyday in the 1930s Bologna FC was called ''"Lo squadrone che tremare il mondo fa"'' (Italian for "The Team that Shakes the World"). The club play at the 38,000-capacity

Stadio Renato Dall'Ara Stadio Renato Dall'Ara is a multi-purpose stadium in Bologna, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the home of Bologna F.C. 1909. The stadium was built in 1927 and holds 38,279. It has also been named Stadio Littoriale. ...

, which has hosted the Italian national team in both football and rugby union, as well as the San Marino national football team. It was also a venue at the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

. Rugby union is also present in the city: Rugby Bologna 1928 is not only one of the oldest Italian rugby union clubs but also the first club affiliated to the Italian rugby union federation. and, to date (2014) is Italy's oldest rugby union club still in operation. The club took part in the top tier of the Italian championship for the first 25 years of their history never winning the title but getting to the runner-up place several times; they returned to the top division (Serie A1 then Super 10), in the late 1990s and faced serious financial problems which led them to the relegation and almost to disappearance. Gianni Falchi Stadium is a baseball stadium located in Bologna. It is home to the home games of Fortitudo Baseball Bologna, in the Italian Baseball League.

People

* Luca Carboni (singer-songwriter, born 1962) * Ulisse Aldrovandi (naturalist, 1522–1605) * Antonio Alessandrini (anatomist and parasitologist, 1786–1861) * Maria Gaetana Agnesi (mathematician and humanitarian, 1718–1799) * Amico Aspertini (painter, c. 1474–1552) * Pupi Avati (director, born 1938) * Riccardo Bacchelli (writer, 1891–1985) * Adriano Banchieri (composer, 1568–1634) * Agostino Barelli (architect, 1627–1687) * Massimiliano Bartoli, (chef, restaurateur) * Antonio Basoli (painter and scene designer, 1774–1848) * Laura Bassi (scientist, first female appointed to university chair in Europe, 1711–1788) * Ugo Bassi (Italian nationalist hero, executed for role in 1848 uprisings, 1800–1849) *

Pier Francesco Battistelli Pier Francesco Battistelli (17th century) was an Italian painter active in the early-Baroque period, mainly in his hometown of Bologna, as well as Parma. He painted quadratura. Biography He was born in Pieve di Cento (Bologna) in the second half ...

(painter of quadratura, 17th-century) * Stefano Benni (writer, born 1947) * Benedict XIV (Prospero Lambertini, Pope 1740–58) * Giovanni II Bentivoglio (1443–1508) * Giordano Berti (writer, born 1959) * Amedeo Biavati (footballer, 1915–1979, credited with the invention of the

stepover The step over (also known as the ''pedalada'', the ''denílson'', or the ''scissors'', or the ''roeder shuffle'') is a dribbling move, or feint, in association football, used to fool a defensive player into thinking the offensive player, in posses ...

, World Champion 1938, played only for

Bologna FC Bologna Football Club 1909, commonly referred to as Bologna (), is an Italian association football, professional football club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Football in Italy, Italian football. The club ...

) * Cristina D'Avena (actress and singer, born 1964) * Francesco Ricci Bitti, Italian sports administrator * Simone Bolelli (professional tennis player, born 1985) *

Giacomo Bolognini Giacomo Bolognini (1664–1734July 10, 1737 according to G. P. Zanotti, ''Storia dell'Accademia Clementina'', Bologna, 1739) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. The nephew of Giovanni Battista Bolognini, he was born in Bologna. Married to ...

(painter, 1664–1734) * Rafael Bombelli (mathematician, 1526–1572) * Rossano Brazzi (actor, 1916–1994) * Floriano Buroni (engraver, 17th-century) *

Arcangelo Canetoli Arcangelo Canetoli (1460 - 16 April 1513) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a canon regular of Santa Maria di Reno. Canetoli escaped the massacre of his parents and brothers who were killed in Bologna during a political feud and embraced th ...

(Roman Catholic priest, canon regular, 1460–1513) * Alessandro Carloni (director, animator, artist who worked on films like '' Kung Fu Panda'' and '' The Croods,'' born 1978) * Raffaella Carrà (singer, 1943–2021) *

(painter, 1560–1609) * Lodovico Carracci (painter, 1555–1619) *

Agostino Carracci Agostino Carracci (or Caracci) (16 August 1557 – 22 March 1602) was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of ...

(painter, 1557–1602) * Corrado Casalini (footballer, born 1914) * Chiara Caselli (actress, born 1967) * Saint Catherine of Bologna (Caterina de' Vigri) (1413–1463) Poor Claire nun, writer, mystic, artist * Pier Ferdinando Casini (politician, born 1955) *

Pietro Cataldi Pietro Antonio Cataldi (15 April 1548, Bologna – 11 February 1626, Bologna) was an Italian mathematician. A citizen of Bologna, he taught mathematics and astronomy and also worked on military problems. His work included the development of contin ...

(mathematician, 1548–1626) * Pierluigi Collina (football referee, born 1960) *

Carlo Colombara Carlo Colombara (born 1964) is an Italian operatic bass. He has sung leading roles in many major opera houses including Teatro alla Scala (Milan, Italy); the Vienna State Opera (Vienna, Austria); the Real Teatro di San Carlo (Naples, Italy); the ...

(operatic bass, born 1964) * Giovanni Paolo Colonna (composer, 1637–1695) * Alessandro Cortini (musician, born 1976) * Cesare Cremonini (songwriter, 1980) * Giuseppe Maria Crespi (painter, 1665–1747) * Donato Creti (painter, 1671–1749) * Giulio Cesare Croce (

cantastorie (; also spelled , or ) comes from Italian for "story-singer" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images. These images can be painted ...

and writer, 1550–1609) * Scipione del Ferro (mathematician, solved the cubic equation, 1465–1526) * Francesco Francia (Francesco Raibolini, painter, c. 1450–1517) *

Lucio Dalla Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards. Dalla was the composer of " Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, and ...

(singer-songwriter, 1943–2012) * Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri, painter, 1581–1641) * Elena Duglioli ( Roman Catholic aristocrat, 1472–1520) * Sara Errani (tennis player, born 1987) *

Gianfranco Fini Gianfranco Fini (born 3 January 1952) is an Italian politician who served as the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2013. He is the former leader of the far-right Italian Social Movement, the conservative National Allianc ...

(politician, born 1952) * Aristotile Fioravanti (architect, –) *

Carlo Fornasini ''Cavaliere dottore'' Carlo Fornasini (3 November 185424 December 1931) was an Italian micropalaeontologist who specialised in Foraminifera ('forams'). He was a pioneer in using fossil forams to sequence marine sedimentary deposits by their rel ...

(1854–1931),

micropalaeontologist Micropaleontology (American spelling; spelled micropalaeontology in European usage) is the branch of paleontology ( palaeontology) that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and i ...

who studied Foraminifera *

(scientist, discoverer of bioelectricity, 1737–1798) * Alessandro Gamberini, (footballer, born 1981) * Serena Grandi (actress, born 1958) * Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncompagni, Pope 1572–85, instituted the Gregorian Calendar) * Gregory XV (Alessandro Ludovisi, Pope 1621–3) * Il Guercino (Giovanni Barbieri, painter, 1591–1666) * Irnerius (jurist, c. 1050–at least 1125) * Blessed Imelda Lambertini (Dominican novice, Eucharistic mystic, and child saint, c. 1322–1333) * Claudio Lolli (singer-songwriter, 1950–2018) * Lucius II (Gherardo Caccianemici dell'Orso, Pope 1144–5) * Marcello Malpighi (physiologist, anatomist and histologist, 1628–1694) *

(engineer, pioneer of wireless telegraphy, Nobel prize for Physics, 1874–1937) * Giovanni Battista Martini (musical theorist, 1706–1784) * Giuseppe Mezzofanti (cardinal, linguist and hyperpolyglot, 1774–1839) * Marco Minghetti (economist and statesman, 1818–1886) * Giorgio Morandi (painter, 1890–1964) * Gianni Morandi (singer, born 1944) * Ludovico Morbioli (Catholic layman, declared Blessed, 1433–1485) * Edgardo Mortara (Catholic priest that was the subject of the ''Mortara Case'' during the Risorgimento, 1851–1940) *

Nella Nobili Nella Nobili was a poetess and writer born in Bologna in 1926 and died in 1985 in Cachan. She is considered a representative of proletarian literature. She wrote in French and Italian, notably about factory work and the woman homosexual love. B ...

(poet and writer, 1926–1985) * Gianluca Pagliuca (footballer, born 1966) * Pier Paolo Pasolini (writer, poet, director, 1922–1975) * Agostino delle Prospettive, painter (1525) *

Umberto Puppini Umberto Puppini (16 August 1884, Bologna – 21 May 1946, Bologna) was a minister of the Italian government in the 1930s and a professor of hydraulic engineering. Puppini grew up as an orphan in poverty, but thanks to financial support from the ...

(1884–1946), mathematician *

Roberto Regazzi Roberto Regazzi (born 20 August 1956 in Bologna, Italy) is a notable contemporary violin maker and scholar who received his initiation in the craft from Otello Bignami. Regazzi lives and works in Bologna. Biography The debut was at an early age; ...

(luthier, born 1956) *

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

(painter, 1575–1642) *

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...

(composer, 1879–1936) * Augusto Righi (physicist, authority on electromagnetism, 1850–1920) * Carlo Ruini (equine anatomist, 1530–1598) * Angelo Schiavio (footballer, 1905–1990, scored the winning goal in extra time in 1934 for Bologna) * Senhit (singer, born 1979) * Elisabetta Sirani (painter, 1638–1665) * Alberto Tomba (skier, born 1966) *

Ondina Valla Trebisonda "Ondina" Valla (20 May 1916 – 16 October 2006) was an Italians, Italian female athletics (sport), athlete, and the first Italian woman to ever win an Olympic Games, Olympic gold medal. She won it in the 80 m hurdling, hurdles even ...

(first Italian woman Olympic gold medalist, 1916–2006) * Mariele Ventre (teacher and educator, founder of

Piccolo Coro dell' Antoniano The Piccolo Coro "Mariele Ventre" dell'Antoniano, until 1995 simply Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano ( en, "Little Choir of Antoniano"), is an Italian children's choir from Bologna. History The choir was created by Mariele Ventre in 1963 at the Anto ...

choir, 1939–1995) * Christian Vieri (footballer, born 1973) * Vitale da Bologna (painter, fl. 1330, d. 1361) * Anteo Zamboni (anarchist who at the age of 15 attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini, 1911–1926) * Alex Zanardi (racing driver, born 1966) *

Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti (23 December 1801 – November 1878) was an Italian classical guitarist and composer. Biography Zani de Ferranti was born in Bologna. He began on the violin, but switched to guitar at age 16. In 1820, he moved to Par ...

(writer, musician, and composer, 1801–1878) In addition to the natives of the city listed above, the following have made Bologna their home: * Giosuè Carducci (poet and academic, Nobel Prize for Literature, born near Lucca, Tuscany, 1835–1907) * Carlo Felice Cillario (Italian conductor of international renown, founder of the Bologna Chamber Orchestra in 1946, 7 February 1915 – 13 December 2007) * Umberto Eco (writer and academic, born in Alessandria, Piedmont, 1932–2016) * Enzio of Sardinia (born , King of Sardinia and illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II, was imprisoned in Palazzo Re Enzo from 1249 until his death in 1272) * Vasco Errani (politician, born 1955) *

William Girometti William Girometti (Milan, 9 January 1924 – Bologna, 3 October 1998) was an Italian painter of Surrealist influence. Biography William Girometti was born in Milan and spent his childhood and early years there, becoming involved with the Accad ...

(painter, born in Milan, 1924–1998) *

Alfonso Lombardi Alfonso Lombardi (c. 1497–1537), also known as Lombardi da Lucca, Alfonso da Ferrara and as Alfonso Lombardo, was an Italian sculptor and medalist who was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1497, and died in Bologna in 1537. He was very active in Bolo ...

(sculptor, born in Ferrara, –1537) *

Niccolò dell'Arca Niccolò dell’Arca (c. 1435-1440 – 2 March 1494) was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor, who worked mostly in terracotta. He is also known under the names Niccolò da Ragusa, Niccolò da Bari and Niccolò d'Antonio d'Apulia. The s ...

(sculptor, born in Bari, –2 March 1494) * Juan Ignacio Molina (naturalist, born in Chile, 1740–1829) * Giovanni Pascoli (poet and academic, born in San Mauro di Romagna, 1855–1912) *

St. Petronius Saint Petronius ( it, San Petronio) (died ca. 450 AD) was bishop of Bologna during the fifth century. He is a patron saint of the city. Born of a noble Roman family, he became a convert to Christianity and subsequently a priest. As bishop of ...

(San Petronio, bishop of Bologna and patron saint of the city, birthplace unknown, died ) * Romano Prodi (economist, politician, born in Scandiano, Reggio Emilia, 1939) * Gioachino Rossini (opera composer, born in Pesaro, 1792–1868) * Giuseppe Torelli (composer, born in Verona, 1658–1709) * Wu Ming (collective of writers, active since 2000) *

Farinelli Farinelli (; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli h ...

(Carlo Broschi, castrato opera singer, 1705–1782) *

Giorgio Rosa The Republic of Rose Island ( eo, Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj; it, Repubblica dell'Isola delle Rose) was a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy. It was ...

(engineer, president of short-lived micronation

Republic of Rose Island The Republic of Rose Island ( eo, Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj; it, Repubblica dell'Isola delle Rose) was a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy. It was ...

, 1925–2017)

International relations

Bologna is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Coventry, England, UK, since 1984 * Kharkiv, Ukraine, since 1966 * Leipzig, Germany, since 1962 *

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

, Argentina, since 1988 * Portland, Oregon, United States, since 2003 * Saint-Louis, Senegal, since 1991 * St. Louis, United States, since 1987 * San Carlos, Nicaragua, since 1988 * Thessaloniki, Greece, since 1981 * Toulouse, France, since 1981 * Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 1994 * Valencia, Spain, since 1980 * Zagreb, Croatia, since 1961 * Prijepolje, Serbia, since 1966

References

External links

*
Weather Bologna

Museum of the History of Bologna

International museum and library of music of Bologna

Bologna online cameras
{{Authority control 530s BC Boii Cities and towns in Emilia-Romagna Roman sites of Emilia-Romagna 6th-century BC establishments in Italy Papal States