Bologna's porticoes, Two Towers and Archiginnasio: what each is and what you can visit

The short answer

These are three different things that sit close together in central Bologna, and they are not one heritage site. The World Heritage property is "The Porticoes of Bologna", inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as twelve components selected from the city's 62 km of porticoes.[1] The Two Towers are not among those twelve, and the taller one, the Asinelli, has been closed since 23 October 2023 so that its neighbour, the Garisenda, can be monitored.[4][3] The Archiginnasio is the sixteenth-century seat of the university, now the city library, whose anatomical theatre can be visited only with an online booking.[8]

What the porticoes listing covers

UNESCO inscribed the porticoes as a serial property on a single criterion, (iv), describing them as an architectural type of ancient origin that was never abandoned and kept changing with the city. Its decision says the twelve components were chosen from the 62 km of porticoes for how representatively they cover the whole system, across the centre and the outskirts, from the twelfth century to the present.[1] The city's porticoes site describes the network as "over 62 kilometers".[2]

Bologna Welcome, the city's tourist information body, lists the twelve:[3]

• Piazza Santo Stefano
• the porticoes of Via Zamboni
• the porticoes of Strada Maggiore
• the porticoed MAMbo building
• the porticoes of Piazza Cavour and Via Farini
• the San Luca portico
• the Pavaglione and Piazza Maggiore porticoes
• the porticoed street of Via Santa Caterina
• the porticoed building in the Barca district
• the Certosa portico
• the Baraccano porticoes
• the porticoed street of Via Galliera

The range is the point. Bologna Welcome says the Barca building, on the city's outskirts, was built in the 1960s, and gives the San Luca portico, which links the city to the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, a length of about 4 km with almost 700 arches.[3] The city's porticoes site notes construction methods ranging from wood and stone to modern concrete.[2]

These are not ticketed monuments. UNESCO's decision describes the porticoes as private property for public use, traces the rule of building them back to a municipal notice of 1288 requiring new houses to have a portico, and says their upkeep remains with the owners of the porticoed buildings, while the City sets the rules on how they are built, used and decorated.[1] XTOUR's reading is that there is nothing to book and no single entrance: the listing covers streets and buildings in ordinary daily use.

Two points where the sources differ

UNESCO's decision describes the inscribed components as spanning the twelfth century to the present.[1] Bologna Welcome's press release says the city's first porticoes date from the eleventh century.[3] The two statements may describe different things, the selected components and the earliest porticoes in the city, but neither page reconciles them, and XTOUR reports both without choosing.

The boundaries are also not settled in the decision itself. The Committee asked Italy to revise them to take in the whole of some streets, naming Santa Caterina, Baraccano and Santo Stefano, and the landscape around the San Luca portico; the decision page also lists the report of a joint World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS advisory mission to the property dated 12 to 16 June 2023.[1] XTOUR has not read the outcome of that review, so it does not map exactly which arcades are inside the property.

The Two Towers

The Asinelli and the Garisenda stand together on Piazza di Porta Ravegnana.[6][5] The home page of the City of Bologna's fundraising site for their restoration says surveys showed a situation of serious static criticality for the Garisenda, caused by deterioration of the materials of its base, and a need for maintenance on the Asinelli; it describes both as almost a thousand years old.[7]

The closure sequence is set out on the city's and the tourist board's own pages:

• Bologna Welcome's press note says the Asinelli Tower closed on 23 October 2023 to allow monitoring work on the Garisenda, with an area marked off around it.[4]
• The city's site says the Mayor had the area around the Garisenda marked off from 21 October 2023, that work to secure it began in November 2023, and that Piazza di Porta Ravegnana will stay closed until the restoration is complete.[6]
• Bologna Welcome's booking page for the Asinelli, read on 9 October 2026, carried a banner saying the Asinelli Tower was closed for area maintenance, and said the visit was not available for online booking.[5]

The two pages give different dates: the city's site dates the decision to cordon off the Garisenda to 21 October 2023, and Bologna Welcome dates the Asinelli's closure to 23 October 2023. More important for a trip: neither page gives a reopening date, and the city's site says only that the Asinelli's closure is confirmed "at the moment".[6] XTOUR does not know when either tower will reopen. When the Asinelli was open, Bologna Welcome's page describes it as 97.20 metres high with 498 steps, no lift, and a compulsory reservation.[5]

The Archiginnasio

The Archiginnasio's own page says the building went up in 1562 and 1563, commissioned by the papal legate Cardinal Carlo Borromeo and the vice-legate Pier Donato Cesi to a design by the Bolognese architect Antonio Morandi, known as Terribilia, to give university teaching a single seat for the first time. Facing the street is a long portico of 30 arches; inside, two floors run round a courtyard, and the walls, stair vaults and loggias are covered with inscriptions, monuments to the university's teachers and thousands of students' coats of arms.[8] Bologna Welcome's description of the Pavaglione and Piazza Maggiore component of the porticoes listing names the Archiginnasio, with its anatomical theatre and Stabat Mater hall.[3]

The university left in 1803, and the building has housed the city library since 1838.[8]

The anatomical theatre. The library's page says the room, named for its amphitheatre shape, was designed in 1637 for anatomy lessons by Antonio Paolucci, known as il Levanti, built of fir and lined with statues of twelve physicians below and twenty anatomists of the Bologna school above. The two flayed figures, the "Spellati", that flank the lecturer's chair were carved in 1734 to a design by Ercole Lelli, and the coffered ceiling of 1645 shows fourteen constellations around Apollo. The bombing of 29 January 1944 hit this wing directly, and the theatre was rebuilt after the war using the original wooden sculptures, which had been recovered from the ruins.[9]

Visiting the Archiginnasio

The library's own page sets the boundary: the part used by the library is not open to tourist visits, and visiting the anatomical theatre and the Stabat Mater hall requires an online booking, with visits run by Bologna Welcome.[8]

Bologna Welcome's page offers two ways in.[10]

Bologna Welcome says the guided visit includes rooms that are usually closed to the public, the Cappella di Santa Maria dei Bulgari and the Cubiculum Artistarum, while the audio guide is a web app played on the visitor's own phone and earphones. If the Stabat Mater hall is in use on the day, the same page says it can be visited within seven days on the same voucher. Its terms say late arrivals are not moved to the next slot or refunded, that bookings can be cancelled with a full refund up to 24 hours before (group tickets excepted), and that bulky bags and animals are not allowed. For visitors with reduced mobility, it says guided visits are possible only for the part held on the first floor, because the ground floor can be reached only by stairs.[10]

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish prices or opening hours for the Archiginnasio or the towers, and does not know when the Asinelli or the Garisenda will reopen or when Piazza di Porta Ravegnana will be cleared. It does not have the porticoes property's boundary maps, so it does not say whether a particular arcade, including the Archiginnasio's own portico, lies inside the inscribed area. It holds no information on crowds or on how long any of these visits takes beyond what the operators' pages state.

For Bologna as a destination, see the Bologna destination page and the Italy regions and bases guide.