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From the 13th Century the Maggiore square was the centre of the city. Near by the Podesta Palace, the Communal Palace, the Notai Palace, the temple of S. Petronio began to rise as the symbol of the local power, opposite Rome, at the end of the 14th Century. Three centuries were needed to build the temple.

For a Bolognese "andare in piazza" (go to the square) means go to "Maggiore Square", where the market and the most important public buildings were. The old town was monocentric: the produce of the land was taken to that square and, from that square, along the radial roads the people went back into the countryside. In the square the important events involving the community took place; the square also served as a theatre for performances in the open. The Temple of St. Petronio Antonio di Vincenzo was commissioned to design in 1390 intended to celebrate the recently attained freedom - has been administered as a municipal institution until recently. The white and red marbles of the unfinished fagade are the heraldic symbols of Bologna.
S. Petronio is, in fact, the church of the local patron saint; in the 16th Century, they hoped to make it even bigger than St. Peter's in Rome but this project was blocked by the central ecclesiastic power.
 

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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