Cassero of Porta San Donato

Exhibition space inside the medieval structure of Porta San Donato which rises above the ancient in Bologna in via San Donato (which within the walls was renamed via Zamboni), a road that connected Bologna to the Bolognese countryside of the north-east.

The structure of the paorta was built for the first time in the thirteenth century in brick, next to it were built the lodgings for the guards.

In 1354 a drawbridge was placed. Closed and reopened several times, between 1952 and 1959 more than one meter of walls was demolished to allow for a better flow of vehicles from the avenues to via San Donato.

Via Zamboni, is one of the oldest streets in Bologna.At the end of the eighteenth century the one known then as Strada di San Donato presented a completely different face: moving from the Two Towers towards the Porta there were first the senatorial palaces, residences of some of the families the most famous aristocrats of the city, interrupted only by the church of San Giacomo with the adjoining Jesuit convent; the square facing the municipal theater then served as a watershed between the noble and popular areas, where poor houses and artisan shops prevailed.

In the sixteenth century, called enlargement, it was known as Piazza di Bentivogli, since it faced the place where the palace of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, lord of Bologna, existed, a palace that was destroyed in 1507 by popular acclaim and from that moment designated as the area of ??the "fault ”Of the Bentivoglio family.

In common use, the square was later known as the theater square, but never had this official name. Only in 1951 was this square given the current name of Piazza Giuseppe Verdi.

Map: Cassero of Porta San Donato