The area where Bologna stands was inhabited since the third millennium B.C., but the most important settlements are from the beginning of the first millennium B.C., that is the Iron Age, with the Villanovan civilisation, which corresponds to the earliest stage of the civilisation of the Etruscans. It was precisely the Etruscans who founded Felsina (the present-day Bologna). The name of this civilisation derives from Villanova, a hamlet near Castenaso, where the remains of an Etruscan necropolis were found in the 19th century.

An interesting piece of information: more than 2,000 years ago, Felsina started trade exchanges with Fiesole, another important Etruscan city, and for this connection the inhabitants used a route that crossed the Apennines. Now, to revive the memory of this ancient itinerary, the Via degli Dei (Road of the Gods), which connects Bologna to Florence, has been created.

These are the places in Bologna and its outskirts where you can find out about the Etruscans:

• Museo e Centro di documentazione della civiltà villanoviana in Villanova, near Castenaso, the location where the Etruscan necropolis was found
• Museo Nazionale Etrusco Pompeo Aria and archaeological area of Kainua, in Marzabotto, where the remains of the ancient Etruscan city of Kainua can be seen
• Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna where a collection of objects from the Etruscan civilisation is exhibited
• Museo della Storia di Bologna: here a 3D cartoon relates the history of the city, and there is a reconstruction of a stretch of the sepulchral road that connected the outskirts of Felsina to the city
• Giardini Margherita, where you can see an Etruscan sarcophagus from the 5th century B.C. and a reconstruction of a Villanovan-age hut

Would you like to learn more about this civilisation and how important it was for Bologna?
In the Bologna Welcome website you will find a section about the discovery of the Etruscans.

The Celtic period

Between 500 and 400 B.C., the Celts came into Italy, invading the Etruscan territories as well. Felsina was occupied by the Gallic tribe of the Boii, who gave the city its present-day name. Very few traces of their presence remain within the city centre; there are more finds in the outskirts of Bologna, in the valley of the River Idice, near Monterenzio.

An interesting piece of information: the name of the mountain range of the Apennines probably derives from that of the Celtic god Penn.

These are the places in Bologna and its outskirts where you can find out about the Celts:

• Museo Civico Archeologico Fantini di Monterenzio e l’Area archeologica di Monte Bibele, in the location where there used to be an Etruscan-Celtic settlement (village and necropolis)
• Museo Civico Archeologico of Bologna, with a collection of funeral objects

The Roman period

In 189 B.C. the Romans conquered the city and named it Bononia. The finds from the Roman period are still visible in several places of Bologna and in the neighbouring towns.

• Excavations of the Biblioteca Sala Borsa, right in front of the Fontana del Nettuno (the Neptune Fountain): in the basement of the library, you can walk on a gangway that is suspended above the remains of the Roman civil basilica from the 2nd century B.C. and other more recent remains from the Middle Ages and Renaissance
• Remains of the Roman theatre of Via De’ Carbonesi, which at present unfortunately are not accessible to the public
• Remains of the Roman city of Claterna, in Ozzano dell’Emilia, which became as large as Bononia (Bologna) and Forum Cornelii (Imola) or even larger, but disappeared mysteriously from 600 A.D. onwards
• Museo Civico Archeologico of Bologna, where several finds from Roman Bononia are exhibited, including a headless statue of Emperor Nero
• Museo della Storia di Bologna, where a portion of the decumanus maximus (one of the two lines that intersected at a right angle, dividing the newly-founded Roman city into four parts) is preserved: here the signs of wear and the ruts of the cart wheels are still clearly visible

An interesting piece of information: in 187 B.C. Consul Gaius Flaminius built a road that connected Bononia to Arretium (Arezzo) crossing the Apennines. At the end of the nineteen-seventies this old route was rediscovered: it is the Flaminia Militare Road. Along this itinerary, it is still possible to walk on the stones laid down by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago.

To find out more about the Romans’ conquest, consult the section on Bononia, città romana in the Bologna Welcome website.

Bologna is called the Learned City, the Fat City, the Red City. It is the seat of the oldest university in the West, and is famous for its tasty food and red houses and roofs. Since the 13th century it was an important centre for the manufacturing of silk fabrics, and around 1100 it was a sort of “Medieval Manhattan”.

The towers of Bologna

The Medieval city centre of Bologna is one of the best-preserved in the world: to this day we can have a fairly accurate idea of what it looked like around the years 1000 and 1200: an urban centre of about 20 hectares, surrounded by walls (most of which have disappeared, though the city gates have been preserved) and packed with very tall towers. This is why Bologna is called “turrita” (many-towered).

The towers were real status symbols for the families that financed their construction: in the 12th century there were no less than 100 of them.

Now only 24 are left: here are the most famous ones.

Torre degli Asinelli and Torre Garisenda: the “two towers” that are the symbol of the city

The two towers are in Piazza Ravegnana. Torre Asinelli can be visited and is 97.20 metres tall (about 20 metres taller than the Pisa Tower). At the beginning it was lower, but it was deliberately added to by the municipal government of Bologna, which in the meantime had become its owner, in order to make it possible to catch sight of the light signals from the countryside around the city. Torre Garisenda is a leaning tower, and only 47.50 metres tall.

An interesting piece of information: Torre Garisenda was certainly already leaning in the time of Dante, who mentioned it in his Divine Comedy.

Torre Galluzzi: an impossible love that ended in a tragedy

If, on leaving Piazza Maggiore by way of Via D’Azeglio, shortly before you reach Via Farini, you turn to the left into the small vault, you come into the Corte de’ Galluzzi, where there is the 30-metre tower built by the Galluzzi family. At a height of about 6 metres you can see the original entrance door: at that time, the towers were used as defensive works, so to get into them you had to climb up a ladder, which was removed in the event of an attack.

According to a chronicle from the middle of the 15th century, the Corte de’ Galluzzi was the scene of an impossible love that had taken place two centuries before and was not very different from Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet. The protagonists were Virginia Galluzzi and Malatesta Carbonesi, two young lovers who belonged to rival families (the Galluzzi were Guelphs, while the Carbonesi were Ghibellines). They got married secretly, but when they were discovered, Virginia’s brothers killed Malatesta, and she committed suicide.

Torre Prendiparte and Torre Azzoguidi: stories of jails and books

Torre Prendiparte, also called Torre Coronata, is in Via Sant’Alò and is about 60 metres tall. During the 18th century, people who had committed crimes against religion were imprisoned in it. Nearby, in Via Altabella, there is another tower, the only perfectly vertical one: Torre Azzoguidi. It is 61 metres tall and was built by the Azzoguidi family, one of whose members was Baldassarre, the first printer in Bologna. Both these towers are close to an important street in the city centre, Via Rizzoli.

Advice for your itinerary

Bologna Welcome organises guided tours for visiting all the towers that are left in the city. In the section of its website that deals with the towers of Bologna, you can find a geolocation map with the ones that are still visible. If you wish to admire Medieval illuminated books, artefacts, weapons and bronze objects, we advise you to visit the Museo Civico Medievale, in Via Manzoni.