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Piazza Maggiore di Bologna


Piazza Maggiore is the main square of Bologna. It is surrounded by the most important buildings of the medieval city. The oldest is the Palazzo del Podestà, which closes the square to the north; dates back to 1200 and is surmounted by the Torre dell'Arengo, which ringing its bell called the people to collect. To this was added soon the Palazzo Re Enzo, under which the cross vault of a pedestrian crossing opens.
The square is closed to the west by the Palazzo Comunale (or d'Accursio), a monumental architectural complex of fourteenth-century origin, currently the Municipality of Bologna, the Municipal Art Collections and the Morandi Museum, which also runs alongside the adjacent Piazza del Neptune, at the center of which stands the fountain of the same name (also called the Giant) built in 1565 by Giambologna.

To the south, in front of the Palazzo del Podestà stands the unfinished facade of the Basilica of San Petronio, an example of Italian Gothic, begun at the end of the fourteenth century and never finished.

Finally, the Palazzo dei Banchi closes in the east, actually a simple facade erected between 1565 and 1568 to a design by Giacomo Barozzi called il Vignola, which elegantly substituted the poor pre-existing buildings that faced the square, respecting the outlets of the old streets confluent. The continuation of the portico of the Palazzo dei Banchi is the portico of the Archiginnasio, the medieval seat of the University of Bologna, now one of the most well-stocked Italian and European libraries; this portico is commonly called "il Pavaglione" (from a dialectal word meaning "pavilion") and for centuries it was the seat of the silkworm trade.

The central part of the square is characterized by a pedestrian platform, nicknamed "the crescentone", built in 1934. On the eastern side, there are some visible damages to the crescentone. This is the damage caused by a US tank on April 21, 1945, the day of the liberation of the city, which have never been restored because considered a historical vestige.

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Piazza Maggiore Bologna (Bologna)