Bologna: the city with the most porticoes in the world

The other day I was talking to my mother about Bologna. She is from the Italian region of Marche, but has grown up in Bologna since she was 10 years old, spending her childhood and teenage there, settling down her family and life. She has lived both in the old town and in the suburbs, where she still lives, without ever having the slightest doubt as to whether to change city or move back to Marche. When I asked her what she liked about this city, she didn't think about it for a second, she didn't give me a list of things, but she gave me a clear, simple and direct answer: "I love Bologna because I can get to San Luca even if it's raining or snowing by walking through all the porticoes".

Giulia Santinami's pics - Instagram @lagiulia_fotografa

The porticos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are almost 62 km long, 40 km of which are in the old town, making the city of Bologna unique not only in Italy but in the whole world, as there is no city in the world with more porticos than Bologna. We have another record linked to our porticoes: we have the longest continuous portico in the world, San Luca, with its 3,796 metres in length and its stunning 666 arches.

...and every Bologna resident knows what it means when, looking at La Guardia hill, you see San Luca and its porticoes from afar: you have finally got home!

Salvatore Cafarella's pics - Instagram @salvatore_cafarella

When I started to travel, even just around Italy, I was on the one hand disappointed and on the other proud that only Bologna had porticoes almost everywhere. Before, I had always ignorantly thought that porticoes were a common feature of any city, that wherever I went I would find them, thinking "how can a city not have porticoes?", almost as if it was a must-have. I have pleasantly found them in some cities, such as in the close town of Modena, or Turin, with its 18 km (not a few in any case), but they were only hinted at in some buildings or streets.

"Florence is thin, longilinear. In Bologna, on the other hand, the porticoes, the arches, the domes, everything suggests a fleshy roundness. The dialect itself, the accent, are abundant and rounded" (Guido Piovene).

Stefano Alvisi's pics - Instagram @bolognacasamia

So why does Bologna have so many porticoes? And, why this city and not another one?

The first evidence dates back to 1041 when the University of Bologna, the oldest one in the world, was attracting more and more students and academics to the city, not to mention the sharp increase in population due also to immigration from the nearby countryside. A solution had to be found because there was a real housing emergency, requiring the creation of more living space.

The citizens, therefore, decided to increase the volume of their already existing houses, enlarging the upper floors with the creation of wooden projections supported by the extension of the load-bearing beams of the attic and, in the case of strong protrusions, by shelves known as "beccadelli". As time went by, the projections increased in size, so it was necessary to build supporting columns from below, which would prevent them from collapsing and with enough space for a person on horseback, wearing a hat, to pass through. This is how the porticoes came into being.

"In Bologna, the arcades hold up the houses have the rheumatism and arthritis of workers' arms" (Samuele Bersani)

Davide Gazzotti's pics - Instagram @davigzt

With time, the arcades were not only appreciated for the gained space, but also for their usefulness in allowing everyone, citizens, students, tourists, to cross the city under all weather conditions.

Even today, people still go to the city centre with or without rain, exclaiming the phrase: "Let's go to the city centre because even if it's raining there are arcades".

The porticoes that end up at the Sanctuary of San Luca, on the other hand, was built later, but for similar reasons. It was built between 1674 and 1739 for religious purposes: it was necessary to protect the faithful who attended the yearly procession for the sacred image of the Madonna di San Luca from the sanctuary to the city centre, a ritual still celebrated today.

"Often, at two o'clock in the morning, returning to my lodgings in Bologna, through these long porticoes, my soul exalted by those beautiful eyes that I had just seen, passing in front of those buildings of which, with its great shadows, the moon drew the masses, it happened to me to stop, oppressed by happiness, to say to myself: How beautiful it is! "(Stendhal, describing the beauty of the Portico of San Luca).

Diana Rambaldi's pics - Instagram @dianarambaldi_photo

---

ILARIA PUDDU