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The introduction in the city of the Gothic style was favoured also by the mendicant orders (Dominicans and Franciscans) in opposition to the Romanesque style supported by the secular clergy.
A typical example of this transitional period is the church of S. Giacomo Maggiore which is both Gothic and Romanesque.
The introduction of the Gothic style was favoured by the mendicant orders, Dominicans and Franciscans, who had already begun building their churches; these orders, from the lower social classes, supported by the Council and the new professional classes (the Glossators), were opposed to the secular clergy of aristocratic origin who favoured the Romanesque style. This evolution in architectonic style was another consequence of the social evolution in a city which at the same time was replacing its remaining wooden buildings - threatened by fire - with brick work.
The temple of S. Giacomo Maggiore, founded between 1267 and 1315, has romanesque facade and sides, gothic windows and decorations, while the apses, radial chapels of the deambulatory, and belltower were added later. The side portico and the extensive interior reconstruction was carried out in the following Bentivoglio period.

In the 14th Century the Town Council fell because of the trade decline. The return to landed property prepared an attempted rule while the city finished building its final surrounding wall.

A crisis point was sounded by the Black Death in 1338 which decimated the European population. In Bologna, the last surrounding wall, planned in the 13th Century in a huge exansion phase and built between 1327 and 1385, remained halfempty because of the big population drop from 50 to 30-35,000 inhabitants. The cardinal Albornoz, trying to reorganize the pontifical lands, in the S. Ruffilo battle placed Bologna under the direct domination of the Church and its pontifical Legates.

But in 1376 the city rebelled and set up the second free Council (on that occasion the word Libertas was inserted in the city blazon) which remained in the hands of Burguess families. This entire period was called the government of "XVI Riformatori dello Stato di Liberta". Actually, this second period, from 1378 to 1401 , experienced an important if short reawakening, with the developement of silk industry and the recovery of the building trade (in 1390 the building of S. Petronio temple began).
 

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General - Environment - Iron and Etruscan Age - Roman Age - Patron Saint- The Commune - Alma mater studiorum - Re Enzo - Porticoes - St Peter - Gothic - 14th Century - Piazza Maggiore - Aristocratic palaces - Brick and other stones - Early 15th Century - Archiginnasio - Counter Reformation Renaissance - 16th Century - Great portico ribbons - Frescoes in palaces - The "scenographic" city -  Napoleon's republics - Fall of Church power - The Restoration - Haussmann style - The new Century - Floreal style - Rationalism - World War - Active preservation - Around 2000