The Fountain was created in three years (1563 to 1566) by Flemish Artisan sculptor Giovanni da Bologna. He was later nicknamed Giambologna for his work on the fountain. He was considered one of the best sculptors, second only to Michaelangelo, in the age of mannerism.
The center piece of this sixteenth century work of art is a magnificent Neptune in stride. This muscular bronze statue was quite controversial in its inception. Some people found it indecent and the Catholic Church wanted Giambologna to have the statue’s left hand cover it’s well endowed front. Thanks to defenders of Giambologna’s masterful denouncement that doing so would be artistic castration, the statue has retained the original design of its creator.
The Statue of Neptune stands on a square base, the corners of which are said to represent the four cardinal directions. The cherubs on the corners and the dolphins add a playful touch to the fountain. The gleeful mermaids spurt water from their breasts drawing many male eyes.
The Fontana di Nettuno was never just an ornamental piece. It served as a water source for the outdoor market found on the piazza. The merchants would actually wash some of their goods in its waters.
Il Sacrario dei partigiani in Piazza Nettuno, Bologna
Memorial to the partisans of WWII (1943-1945).
Bologna was one of the Italian cities most affected by the war, both for its importance in the communication/transportation system, and for its location in the rear of the Gothic Line. Between September 1943 and April 1945 the city was occupied by the Nazis. The people suffered from cold and hunger, Allied bombings and Nazi reprisals such as that of Monte Sole. Throughout this period, the courageous action of groups of anti-fascist partisans kept the people’s hopes alive.
A high toll was paid by the Bolognese: the number of civilian deaths under the bombing was 2481, while 2064 partisans were killed. On the morning of April 21 1945 Bologna was free.
Women’s groups began to lay flowers and put up pictures of their loved ones in Piazza Nettuno, on the wall where many partisans had been shot .
Thus was born the shrine of the partisans.
Work began on it in 1390, but it was never finished and still today its main facade remains incomplete. Inside, there is a huge sundial that stretches 67.7m down the eastern aisle. Designed in 1656 by Gian Cassini and Domenico Guglielmi, this was instrumental in discovering the anomalies of the Julian calendar and led to the creation of the leap year.
Images taken off the internet
The sundial is just one of the basilica's interesting oddities. Another is the fact that it wasn't officially consecrated until 1954. And even then it wasn't as the original plans had intended – those plans had called for it to be larger than Rome's St Peter's, but in 1561, some 169 years after building had started, Pope Pius IV blocked construction by commissioning a new university on the basilica's eastern flank. If you walk along Via dell'Archiginnasio you can still see semi-constructed apses poking out oddly.
The sculptor Niccolò da Bari, born in 1435 came to Bologna from south of Italy. He became famous as "Niccolò dell'Arca" after creating the famous arch for the tomb of St Dominique in Bologna. Some time between 1465 and 1490, he created a group of 7 terracotta statues, including the dead Jesus and a group of persons crying around him. The statues are larger than life size.
The sculptures of Niccolò dell'Arca are masterpieces of human expression, especially the statues of the two women, Mary and Mary Magdalene. The two women are shown with their mouths open in an eternal shriek, their faces screwed up in sorrow, their clothes flying behind. It seems difficult to believe that these two statues are made of terracotta, they look as if actual persons were turned into clay suddenly, their bodies frozen in eternity.
The skyline of Bologna with its distinctive towers - power symbols belonging to the richest families- was unmistakeable. It must have been like the Manhattan of the medieval ages! There were twin towers here too, only these have held up to centuries of war and become the symbol of the city.
They were strategically located at the point of entry to the city on the ancient Via Emilia. They used to be interconnected, with a walkway and suspended passageways running everywhere.
This is difficult to imagine today when the towers now appear completely separate from one another at the end of one of the city’s widest streets. In addition to displaying family prestige, the towers also served an important military function: defence. By the end of the 12th century, there were a hundred of them throughout the city.
This is truly an astonishing number when you consider that to build a 60 metre tower took anywhere from 3 to 10 years! Only about twenty of these impressive buildings have survived the fires, wars, and lighting strikes and remain standing today.
The layout of Bologna's 16th century ghetto can still be precisely traced amid the narrow streets in the medieval heart of the city: here, a maze of alleys, covered bridges and small windows tells the story of a whole community forced to live in a specific area of the town by order of the Papal State beginning from 1556. In Bologna, Jews lived in the ghetto until 1569, when they were expelled for the first time.
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