Bologna was born as a city of students: here, towards the end of the eleventh century, Justinian's Roman law began to be taught, and the students organised themselves into guilds that hired and policed their own teachers. Nine centuries later the city is still called the Learned, but also the Fat, the city that deposited its ragù recipe and the exact width of a tagliatella with a notary. Twelve stops between the professors' tombs, the prisoner king, the palace of the great glossator, the basilica with a sundial inside, the building of six thousand coats of arms, the dissection theatre, the guild market, the golden tagliatella, the leaning towers, the wooden porticoes, Bologna's Jerusalem and the street of today's university. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
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Bolonia: la universidad más antigua de Occidente y la ciudad que registró su ragù
Bolonia nació como ciudad de estudiantes: acá, hacia fines del siglo once, se empezó a enseñar el derecho romano de Justiniano, y los alumnos se organizaron en corporaciones que contrataban y vigilaban a sus propios profesores. Nueve siglos después, la ciudad sigue siendo la Docta, pero también la Gorda, la que depositó ante notario la receta del ragù y el ancho exacto de la tagliatella. Doce paradas entre las tumbas de los profesores, el rey prisionero, el palacio del gran glosador, la basílica con un reloj de sol dentro, el edificio de los seis mil escudos, el teatro de las disecciones, el mercado de los gremios, la tagliatella de oro, las torres que se inclinan, los pórticos de madera, la Jerusalén de Bolonia y la calle de la universidad de hoy. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 2.47 km on foot (~35 min walking) · about 1 h in total
You are standing before Palazzo Ghisilardi, a late fifteenth-century palace that now houses the Civic Medieval Museum. Inside is something you will not see in any other city: tombs of professors carved in the middle of a lecture.
Look at any of those monuments. At the top, the master sits at his chair with an open book. Below, his students sit on benches, books in front of them. Some are paying attention. Others look away or chat with a neighbour.
That is how the doctors of Bologna wanted to be remembered: teaching. One of the finest is the tomb of Giovanni da Legnano, a jurist who died in 1…
2
Neptune and the King Who Never Left Bologna
In front of you is the Neptune fountain, the sea god in bronze, trident in hand. It was sculpted between 1563 and 1566 by a Fleming the Italians called Giambologna.
It was commissioned by the pope's representatives. From 1506 Bologna belonged to the Papal States, and this fountain was a way of showing who ruled the square. Look at the base: sirens spouting water and a Latin inscription dedicated to the people.
Now look at the battlemented brick palace behind it, to your right. This is Palazzo Re Enzo. Its name recalls the city's most famous prisoner.
Enzo was the son of Emperor Frederick II…
3
The Square of the Great Glossator
You are in Piazza Maggiore, the heart of Bologna. Look at the long palace on the left with the clock tower. This is Palazzo d'Accursio, the city hall.
Its name comes from Accursius, a thirteenth-century law professor who lived on this spot. His house was absorbed into the palace of the city government, but the name survived.
Accursius was the culmination of a story that began with a teacher named Irnerius in the late eleventh century. Irnerius set about reading and explaining the Digest, the great compilation of Roman law commissioned by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century and almost forg…
4
The Basilica with a Sundial in the Floor
You are standing before the Basilica of San Petronio. Look at the facade: below, white and pink marble; above, bare brick. It has stayed that way, unfinished, for centuries.
Work began in 1390 under the architect Antonio di Vincenzo. It was promoted not by the bishop but by the commune: this was the city's church, dedicated to its patron Petronius, a fifth-century bishop. It was only consecrated in 1954.
Look at the central doorway. The stone reliefs of scenes from Genesis are by Jacopo della Quercia, from the fifteenth century. Michelangelo studied them when he passed through Bologna.
Some…
5
The Building of Thousands of Coats of Arms
You are in the Archiginnasio. Step into the courtyard and look up: walls, arches and vaults are covered with painted and carved coats of arms. There are thousands, more than six thousand by some counts.
For almost five centuries the university had no building of its own. Teachers lectured in their houses, in rented halls or in convents. This was the first building to gather all the schools together, built between 1562 and 1563 by the architect Antonio Morandi, known as Terribilia.
It was ordered by the papal government that ruled Bologna. It was a way of ordering and controlling a university…
6
The Theatre Where Bodies Were Opened
You are in the Anatomical Theatre. Everything is made of fir wood: the tiered seating, the walls, the ceiling. In the centre stands a white marble table. Corpses were dissected there in front of students and the public.
The hall was built in 1637 to a design by Antonio Levanti. Look at the statues on the walls: famous physicians, ancient and Bolognese. And on the ceiling, Apollo, god of medicine, surrounded by the constellations.
Now look at the canopy over the professor's chair. It is held up by two skinless figures with their muscles exposed: the Spellati, the flayed men. They were carved …
7
The Market of the Guilds
You are in the Quadrilatero, the maze of narrow streets that opens up behind Piazza Maggiore. Look at the stalls: whole mortadellas hanging, cheeses, fresh pasta, fish on ice.
This district was the market of medieval Bologna, and the street names still tell you who worked in each one. Via Pescherie Vecchie was the fishmongers' street. Via Drapperie, the cloth sellers'. Via Orefici, the goldsmiths'. Via Clavature, the locksmiths'.
Each trade had its guild, with statutes, dues and representatives. It is the same model the students copied to organise themselves: the medieval university was, at …
8
The Golden Tagliatella and the Notarised Ragù
You are standing before Palazzo della Mercanzia, a Gothic palace of brick and marble built between 1384 and 1391. Look at the open loggia below and the small stone balcony above.
This was the merchants' court, which settled commercial disputes. Today it is the seat of Bologna's Chamber of Commerce. And it is the place where the city stored, with all due seriousness, two measures of its cuisine.
In 1972 the Learned Brotherhood of the Tortellino and the Italian Academy of Cuisine deposited here the official measure of the tagliatella: eight millimetres wide, once cooked. So that no one would f…
9
The Leaning Towers
You are at the foot of the Two Towers, the symbol of Bologna. The tall one is the Asinelli Tower: about ninety-seven metres of brick. The short, leaning one is the Garisenda: about forty-eight.
According to tradition, the Asinelli was built between 1109 and 1119. The Garisenda dates from the same period, but it began to sink into the ground, and in the fourteenth century it was cut down so that it would not fall.
In the Middle Ages Bologna bristled with towers, dozens, perhaps a hundred. Powerful families built them as fortresses and as a display of wealth. Most were demolished or collapsed …
10
Forty Kilometres Under Cover
You are on Strada Maggiore, under the porticoes. This street follows the line of the Via Emilia, the Roman road opened in 187 BC. Bologna was born on it.
Look for Casa Isolani at number 19. Its portico has no stone columns but towering wooden beams several metres high that have held the house up since the thirteenth century. It is one of the few medieval wooden porticoes to survive.
Bologna has some forty kilometres of porticoes in the historic centre alone. In 2021 UNESCO declared them a World Heritage Site.
Why so many? The city was growing, above all with the arrival of students, and spa…
11
Bologna's Jerusalem
You are in Piazza Santo Stefano, a triangular cobbled square. In front of you are several brick facades set side by side. They are not one church: this is a cluster of churches the Bolognese call the Seven Churches.
Tradition attributes its origin to Bishop Petronius, the city's patron, in the fifth century. According to that tradition, he wanted to reproduce the holy places of Jerusalem in Bologna. That is why the complex was also called Holy Jerusalem.
Go in and look for the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is octagonal. In the centre stands a shrine that imitates Christ's tomb in Jerus…
12
The Street of Today's University
You are on Via Zamboni, in front of Palazzo Poggi. Look around: bicycles, posters, students sitting under the porticoes. This is the street of today's university.
From 1711 this sixteenth-century palace housed the Institute of Sciences, founded by the general and scientist Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. In 1803, in Napoleon's time, the university left the Archiginnasio and moved here. It is still its headquarters.
There is a key woman in this story. In 1732 Laura Bassi took a doctorate in philosophy in Bologna and was given a teaching post at the university. She is considered the first woman in E…
How long does the "Bologna: the Western World's Oldest University and the City That Registered Its Ragù" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 2.47 km walking route (~35 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Professors Buried in the Middle of a Lecture" (coordinates 44.4972, 11.3433). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Bologna and pick "Bologna: the Western World's Oldest University and the City That Registered Its Ragù". No account required to start.
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