Piazza Verdi
Just a few minutes' walk from the Two Towers, Piazza Verdi is the hub of university life in Bologna and the evening meeting place for many students. The square is crossed by Via Zamboni, which has housed the seat of the University of Bologna since 1803, and takes its name from the theatre on one of its sides.
Some very important historical events for the city of Bologna are linked to Piazza Verdi: it was here that violent clashes took place in 1977 between the police and the student movement, at a time of great political turmoil in the university. It was during these clashes that student Francesco Lorusso, a member of the Lotta Continua group, was killed by the police on 11 March 1977 in Via Mascarella.
What to see in Piazza Verdi
On the left side of the square, having the towers behind you, there is the
Giuseppe Verdi Theatre where opera, concerts and ballets can still be seen today. The theatre was inaugurated in 1763 at the behest of the Bolognese senate and Cardinal Lambertini, designed by architect Antonio Galli Bibiena. The previous city theatre had in fact been destroyed in a fire, and the need arose to build a new one.
The area behind it now houses the
Giardino del Guasto hill, built on the site where debris from the
demolition of Palazzo Bentivoglio was accumulated. The Bentivoglio family - lords of Bologna between the 15th and 16th centuries - had built their residence where the theatre stands but their property extended to the entire square, where they had also placed their stables (right inside the premises now called 'le Scuderie', the stables).
In 1507, after their expulsion from the city, the palace was completely razed to the ground by the people of Bologna, eager to erase the memory of their rulers. The rubble of Palazzo Bentivoglio remained there for more than a century before the construction of the theatre began, as a reminder of the treatment meted out to those who opposed the people of Bologna.
The Bentivoglio family also had a private chapel with direct access to their residence. This was the
Oratory of Santa Cecilia, a splendid chapel decorated by the most important painters of the time such as Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa, connected to the piazza by the 15th-century portico that runs along the side of the church of San Giacomo Maggiore.
