Bologna urban planning

BED AND BREAKFAST IN BOLOGNA ACCOMMODATION IN BOLOGNA ERBORISTERIA WEBMASTER

Soon after the year 1000 Bologna was among the first Lombard cities to become a Commune. Then it joined the "Lombard League" against Fredrick Barbarossa. It was the focal point of Byzantine, Roman and Lombard influence and an important trunk road; tolls had to be paid on all goods passing through to the South. The aristocratic families, the owners of the land, lived inside the town and always built the towers within the "selenite circle" for defence and prestige. In town the first groups of the middle-class were forming, together with the founding of the first University in Europe; its needs - resulting from the inrush of students - brought about first the addition of boroughs and later the final enlargement of the town within the circle of the "Torresotti" (UnderTowers).
Traces of this new fortified wall are still present in the remaining portions of the walls in Verdi square (behind St Giacomo Maggiore church) in the Under Towers in St Vtale street, in the Porta Nuova (New Gate), and in all the raised streets (ancient battlements) along the perimeter. Among the still existing towers of Bologna, besides the famous Two Towers, the Garisenda and the Asinelli (built in the 13th Century) we mention: the Azzoguidi Tower; the Uguzzoni Tower; the Prendiparte Tower in St Alo street;
the Guidozagni Tower, 3 Albiroli street; part of the Scappi Tower in the Emaldi House, 35 lndipendenzastreet, the Galluzzi Towerin in Galluzzi courtyard; the Catalani Tower in Spirito Santo street; the Ghisilieri Tower, the bell-tower of Sts Gregorio and Siro church in Montegrappa street, the Toschi Tower, 3 Minghetti square; the base of the Oseletti Tower, 36 Maggiore street; the Alberici Tower with a typical shop, 4 St Stefano street

From the top of the Asinelli towers you can see very well: the layout of the town with its streets which are still inserted in the geometrical urban network of the Roman town and open radially towards the countryside (a particularly useful structure, because a network of concentric streets crossing the radial ones enables to follow the shortest ways in town). In the 12th Century during struggle between Bologna and Floren-.
cia to own the access to the Reno valley, Bologna's Commune decided to built the close of Casalecchio from where a canal would bring water to the city: the Reno canal was the driving force of the new industries in the chief-town. This canal was connected to another one already dug by the Commune which dyked up the Savena waters to create the Navile Canal. This Canal was moderated by a few navigable basins, in Bentivoglio and Malalbergo, and linked the city to the Po river, then to Venice and to international trade. In that way, in the 15th Century inside Bologna's circle a port area with customs, shops and wharfs was built up. (The salt warehouse was recently disinterred and restored, at the corner of Don Minzoni street and Pietramellara avenue).