BED AND BREAKFAST IN BOLOGNA   ACCOMMODATION IN BOLOGNA   ERBORISTERIA   WEBMASTER

The Iron Age is also called "Villanova civilisation" because it was at Villanova di Castenaso, in the province of Bologna, where towards the end of the last century tombs and objects of this particular period were found proving the great importance of this place. These objects are exhibited in Bologna's Municipal Museum of Archeology, in via dell' Archiginnasio.
From the end of the 6th to the middle of the 4th Century B.C., that is during the greatest period of the Greek civilisation, the area which would in the future become Bologna was called "Velzna" (later "Felsina" in Latin) by the Etruscans of Northern Italy whose civilisation merged with the one of the previous "Villanoviano" period. By means of close connections with the port of Spina (its ruins have been found near Comacchio) trade expanded to Greece It was in this period that through the Apennine pass to Tuscany, other Etruscans from Central Italy appeared and building a town, traditionally known by the name of Misa (of which numerous ruins are still visible) outside Marzabotto, in the' province of Bologna on the road to PorrettaTerme. From the second half of the 4th Century B.C. till 191 B.C. Felsina was in the hands of the Celts, then called Gauls by the Romans and for our tribe, the Gauls Boi.  On the slopes of Monte Bibele in Monterenzio area are the important remains of a celtic-etruscan settlement (still under excavation). Rare examples of this period are exhibited at the Historic Museum of the Idice Valley in Monterenzio. The Celts left at least two marks to remember. They introduced pig farming to this area and so the pork production that still characterises the food industry (ham, pig's trotters, mortadella) of Emilia opposite Romagna that faithful to its name ("Romans'Land") tied to Rome has more ovine and bovine farming. In addition, wethinkthatthe Celts left their mark on the local language. It seems in fact that the Bolognese dialect, belonging to the Gaul-Italic group, sprang from the garbled way, the French way, the Celts pronounced the Latin of their Roman conquerors.

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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