The Fiera di Bologna is the

business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of the city of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, in central Italy. The area includes a trade exhibition centre and several office towers occupied by the regional government of

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

and various private companies.

History

19th century

The history of the Fiera begins in the 19th century. The first large trade fair was held in the city on May 7, 1888 in the

Giardini Margherita The Giardini Margherita is a park in Bologna, Italy, located just south of the city centre. History The park has been opened on 6 July 1879 by the city who bought the land that was part of an ancient Convent. The project made by Ernesto Bald ...

, inaugurated by

King Umberto I Umberto I ( it, Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900. Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colo ...

, Queen

Margherita of Savoy Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was Queen of Italy by marriage to Umberto I. Life Early life Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabe ...

and the then Prime Minister,

Francesco Crispi Francesco Crispi (4 October 1818 – 11 August 1901) was an italy, Italian patriot and statesman. He was among the main protagonists of the Risorgimento, a close friend and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, and one of the arc ...

20th century

Trade fairs of national significance were held more constantly starting from 1927, the year in which the " Littoriale" football stadium, now Renato Dall'Ara Memorial Stadium, was built by the

Fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

, with expositions taking place inside the stadium on a regular basis. After WW2, in 1947, the local chamber of commerce set up the Ente Autonomo delle Fiere di Bologna; however, it didn't have a fixed location yet, but trade fairs were held between Montagnola park and Palazzo del Podestà. In 1961 EAF launched a contest in order to select a project for a first block of permanent pavillons. The winning project was that of architects

Leonardo Benevolo Leonardo Benevolo (25 September 1923 – 5 January 2017) was an Italian architect, city planner and architecture historian. Born in Orta San Giulio Orta San Giulio is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Itali ...

, Tommaso Giuralongo and Carlo Melogran; works began in 1964 and the following year the 29th Fair of Bologna, inaugurated by the then Prime Minister

Aldo Moro Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...

, was the first to be held in a permanent venue. At the end of the 1960s the city authorities, worried by massive

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ...

and suburbanisation, asked Japanese

archistar Archistar is a software framework to build distributed storage system on the basis of secure fragmentation and information dispersal. It is dedicated to the development of a secure distributed storage architecture for trustworthy cloud usage. The ...

Kenzo Tange is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *賢三, "wise, three" *健三, "healthy, three" *謙三, "humble, three" *健想, "healthy, concept" *建造, "bu ...

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 way too much 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

moved in the new district.

21st century

In 2002 EAF turned into "BolognaFiere Spa", a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

that is the fulcrum of a regional fair system that includes also

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label= 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 Italy. A town, and seat o ...

and

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 ...

, with a combined total of 200,000 square meters of gross hall capacity, of which 105,000 in Bologna alone. In 2010 a new 22 story, 90 meters high tower has been completed. At the end of 2016 BolognaFiere Spa successfully carried out a €20m

seasoned equity offering A seasoned equity offering or secondary equity offering (SEO) or capital increase is a new equity issued by an already publicly traded company. Seasoned offerings may involve shares sold by existing shareholders (non-dilutive), new shares (dilutiv ...

with the aim to expand its exhibition grounds to 140,000 square meters. On October 30, 2017 (after the approval of a new €100m restyling project) demolition works of the old pavillons officially started.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiera District In Bologna, Italy Buildings and structures in Bologna Convention centers in Italy

History

19th century

20th century

21st century

See also

References