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The walls of Bologna encircled the city until the beginning of the 20th century, when they were completely demolished to make way for the current ring roads. Built in three successive circles starting in the 3rd century, there are still remnants visible in the historic centre.
It is believed that the walls were first built by the Etruscans for the protection of the city. Archaeological excavations conducted in present-day Piazza Azzarita in 1996 uncovered a palisade from the 8th century BC, running east to west with a covered gallery and upper walkway. The defensive structure was probably equipped with wooden towers and surrounded by three moats. [1]
Most likely the Roman Bononia also had a defensive system consisting of embankments, canals and ditches, including the Aposa river to the east and the Vallescura river to the west (mostly eliminated in the 1st century BC as it was considered a hindrance to urban development). It is presumed that more advanced defensive systems were constructed for the defence of Bononia, but no archaeological evidence of them remains today.
The oldest wall that still has visible remnants is the so-called "ring of selenite", built after the barbarian invasions at the end of the Western Roman Empire and only discovered in the 1920s. This wall was constructed from blocks of selenite, a very common mineral in the Bologna hills and the so-called "vena del gesso romagnola" (vein of gypsum of Romagna). It was mostly made up of blocks from Roman buildings and measured 7-8 metres in height and 2 metres in depth. [2] The wall had an elongated rectangular shape, presumably with facades on the south west at the site of the Roman theatre (which remained inside), and the north east, up to the Piazetta San Simone. The portion of the city protected by the walls was much smaller than the current historic centre and the Roman city, covering only twenty hectares between via Farini to the south, via Manzoni to the north and via Val d'Àposa to the west, while to the east it followed the course of the Aposa river (parallel to via Oberdan). The poorest neighbourhoods in the north and west of the ancient Roman town were excluded. In the Dark Ages, these remained uninhabited and abandoned, eventually earning the nickname civitas antiqua rupta (rupture of the ancient city).
By the end of the construction of the wall, the city was divided into twelve sections, called horae, by the Byzantines. At every hour of the day and night the inhabitants of the sector on duty were entrusted with the defence of the city. [3]
There have been numerous hypotheses as to when the walls were constructed:
Initially there were four gates, arranged along the cardo maximus and decumanus maximus of the city:
Later three more were added:
The blocks of selenite were largely reused for the construction of houses, bases of towers and pillars. Today only a few traces of this old wall remain, one of which is visible in Casa Conoscenti in via Manzoni. Another was discovered in via Rizzoli and yet another in via De' Toschi during the excavations in 1921.
In late antiquity and medieval Bologna many crosses were present, placed on ancient overturned columns and often protected by small chapels, located at the hubs of urban activity, such as crossroads, squares or churches. The oldest appear to have been placed between the end of the 4th and the 5th century just outside the ring of selenite, at the four cardinal points, near four of the city gates. [9] Some historic sources date this to the years 392-393 and legend has it that it was by order of the then bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose. [9] Another story, perhaps less reliable, says that the construction was instead realised at the end of the 5th century at the behest of the then bishop of Bologna, Saint Petronius. [9] The crosses were redone and replaced several times, and those visible now are all dated between the 12th and 13th centuries, although the columns on which they rest were reused from the Roman era. In the Middle Ages the four crosses were protected by a pyramidal roof, supported by columns with stylophore lions and griffins. They were only removed in 1798 and are today conserved in the Basilica di San Petronio. [9]
Their names are:
Probably dating to the 8th century, during the rule of the city by the Lombards, an additional stretch of wall was constructed, called the "addizione longobarda" (Lombard addition), attached to the east side of the first ring and including the Santo Stefano church. The radial development of the present-day roads via Zamboni, via San Vitale, Strada Maggiore, via Santo Stefano and via Castiglione, beginning at the Ravenna Gate, probably meant that the Lombard settlement had a semicircular shape, centred on Piazza di Porta Ravegnana. Traces of this have been preserved in the present-day urban plan, in the streets that curve around the Two Towers on the eastern side (absent on the western side).
The expansion of the city and the birth of new villages outside the walls gave rise to the need to build a new set of walls. Although it was previously thought that they were constructed in the years between 1176 and 1192 (or 1208 according to other sources), corresponding to the conflict with Frederick Barbarossa, recent studies have dated it earlier, reconfirming the ancient name Cerchia del Mille. The semi-destruction of the wall and moats ordered by Barbarossa in 1163 would therefore be attributed, according to this thesis, to this ring and not the ring of selenite.
This second ring was approximately 3.5 km long and had 18 gates, also called serragli ( seraglios) or torresotti (under-towers) as each was topped by a tower, most of which have now been demolished. Four remain today, still visible and incorporated into the town like some remnants of the wall itself, such as those in Piazza Verdi and via Maggia.
The gates often took the names of the streets onto which they opened:
The final ring, with a polygonal shape and called cresta or circla, corresponded to the current ring roads, therefore fully enclosing the Cerchia del Mille. Its construction may be dated to the start of the 13th century, when the city began to organise into neighbourhoods, annexing the suburbs outside. Initially designed in 1226 as a wooden palisade, only in 1327 did the construction begin in stone and it was finished in 1390. The wall was built according to the ancient technique of rubble masonry, where two parallel walls were prepared approximately one metre apart then the space between was filled with a mixture of pebbles, gravel and sand. This architecture is still clearly visible in the parts of the wall still standing as well as the surviving gates.
The third ring stretched for approximately 7.6 km and had twelve gates with drawbridges to cross the outer moat, while inside was a terreplein (also still partly visible) that at some points extended for over 70 metres towards the centre of the city.
The twelve gates were:
Between 1902 and 1906, the walls of the third ring were torn down following the council plans made in 1889. Proponents of the plan believed that the walls were limiting the development of the city, referring to the clean sweep that Baron Haussmann made of the centre of medieval Paris on behalf of Napoleon III. However, the medieval city of Bologna was not so strongly affected: perhaps a more fitting model would be Vienna under Emperor Franz Joseph I, where the ring of walls was torn down to make way for the ring roads.
However, the main motivations for supporting the plan were above all social and economic: because of the stalemate in building construction, many masons were unemployed so they warmly supported the proposal to demolish the walls, seeing in it a long-awaited job opportunity. In addition, the municipality could make the large amount of space occupied by the walls, moat and especially the terreplein into buildings, gaining large profits. Today these areas do in fact contain many villas and cottages, constructed at the beginning of the 20th century.
This demolition plan also included the twelve gates but thanks to the intervention of Alfonso Rubbiani and Giosuè Carducci, who defended the historical and artistic importance of the walls, almost all of them were saved except for Porta San Mamolo and Porta Sant'Isaia. The dismantling of Porta Maggiore (originally considered the most important of the gates of Bologna, as the name suggests) was also begun but it was suspended immediately after the discovery of the 13th century gate visible today under the 18th century construction.
Between 2007 and 2009, the surviving gates underwent a restoration that, with the contribution of a credit institution in Bologna, involved personalities from the world of culture and entertainment in the city. [10] While the gates were being restored, images and phrases dedicated to the city from musicians and Bolognese school children were displayed on the temporary works. [11]
These works were the first scientific restorations performed on these monuments. [12] The preliminary analysis identified that there had been six periods of construction and reconstruction. The building phase, realised in the 13th century, was identified in all the gates (with the exception of the frame of Porta Santo Stefano which was reconstructed in the 19th century), characterised by a similar construction of the walls, probably undertaken by a unit of craftsmen. The first significant changes date from the 14th century, with the construction of protective avant-corps for the drawbridges, still preserved on Porta San Donato and Porta Mascarella. Between the 15th and 16th centuries the gates assumed their current form, testified by traces of yellow plaster on the towers and pink on the bodies. The most significant interventions in the following period (18th and 19th centuries) were the restructuring of Porta San Felice and Porta Castiglione and the rebuilding of Porta Santo Stefano from scratch. Portions of wall built with recycled materials and new bricks to support the gates during the demolition of the walls are still visible.
The restoration involved a total of 35 workers and was conducted on all the gates at once. It was divided into four phases: consolidation, cleaning, reintegration and protection.
The most degraded zones were those made of sandstone. The methods adopted for consolidation were diverse: from imbibition with ethyl silicate to localised injection with acrylic or bicomponent resins. At Porta Santo Stefano an experimental method was used, whereby a machine introduced consolidating material by means of a vacuum pump.
Methods for cleaning were also diverse: washing with basic solvent mixtures, micro-sanding using water at controlled pressure, washing with atomised water and the use of vibrating and ultrasonic scalers. During the cleaning phase of Porta Santo Stefano, traces of street signs painted during World War II were discovered, some in German, which had been hidden by graffiti and paint. The reintegration of the walls was achieved using mortar made on-site, opus signinum or marble powder. To safeguard the restorations, protective waterproofing was performed on all the surfaces.
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