Medieval competition built Bologna's skyline; civic pride built its cover. The two walks explain both.
Last updated August 27, 2026
Bologna once had more than one hundred towers, built mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries by wealthy families who needed defensive lookouts and visible statements of power. Fewer than twenty medieval towers survive in the older city core, alongside towers, belltowers and torresotti recorded by the city's maps. The practical walking variant begins at Piazzetta Prendiparte and ends at Corte de' Galluzzi, about 1.5 km and 1 hour 30 minutes; the longer historical circuit below begins in Piazza Maggiore and follows all fourteen highlights.
| No. | Tower or tower-house | Route note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agresti Tower | From Piazza Maggiore, via IV Novembre and Piazza Galileo Galilei |
| 2 | Lapi Tower | Built into Palazzo d'Accursio |
| 3 | Galluzzi Tower | Corte Galluzzi, after Piazza dei Celestini |
| 4 | Carrari Tower | Via Marchesana, in the faux-medieval block |
| 5 | Alberici Tower | Via Santo Stefano, beside the Case Serracchioli |
| 6 | The Two Towers: Asinelli and Garisenda | Piazza di Porta Ravegnana |
| 7 | Uguzzoni Tower | Vicolo Tubertini, in the former Jewish Ghetto |
| 8 | Guidozagni Tower-House | Via degli Albiroli |
| 9 | Prendiparte Tower | Via Sant'Alò; also called the Coronata |
| 10 | Azzoguidi Tower | Via Altabella |
| 11 | San Pietro Belltower | Visible from Via Altabella |
| 12 | Lambertini Tower | In Palazzo Re Enzo |
| 13 | Arengo Tower | Under the Voltone del Podestà |
| 14 | Orologio or Clock Tower | At Piazza Maggiore and Via IV Novembre |
The towers had square foundations often sunk at least five metres. Builders used heavy selenite blocks below and lighter materials above, with a sacco construction: a thick inner brick wall, a thinner outer wall and a rubble-and-mortar core between them. Scaffolding holes and selenite sockets remain visible on some façades. A tower about 60 metres high could take three to ten years, explaining why several families sometimes shared the cost. Towers were homes, lookouts, fortresses and symbols during the conflicts between Guelf and Ghibelline factions.
The 13th-century Agresti Tower is about 20 metres high and has belonged to the Collegio di Spagna since the end of the 14th century. A major fire in 1641 led to a shorter reconstruction for stability. Nearby, the Lapi Tower dates from 1359, belongs to the city and is built into Palazzo d'Accursio; it was once used as a gunpowder store.
Built in 1257, the Galluzzi Tower now rises about 30 metres, although its entrance was originally roughly ten metres above ground and reached by temporary wooden bridges. It is a consortium tower, or turris maior, built by a group of wealthy families linked by clan ties; its walls can be more than three metres thick. Local tradition remembers Virginia Galluzzi and Alberto Carbonesi as Bologna's tragic pair of rival-family lovers: after Alberto's death, Virginia was found hanging from the tower in 1258 and the feud claimed many more lives.
The Carrari Tower is about 22 metres high and dates to the 14th century. It is the only authentic medieval structure in a 1930s faux-medieval block and is now a private residence. The Alberici Tower stands beside the 13th-century Case Serracchioli on Via Santo Stefano. Its base has held a shop since 1273, making the commercial life of the medieval street visible in the tower itself.
Asinelli and Garisenda are Bologna's defining medieval pair. Their traditional construction date is between 1109 and 1119, although the surviving evidence does not settle the attribution completely. The Asinelli became city property in the late 14th century and rises about 97 metres through 498 steps. It has served as a lookout, prison and place of execution, and scientists Riccioli and Guglielmini used it for experiments on gravity and the earth's rotation. Volunteers watched from its summit during the bombing raids of 1943-1945.Garisenda is famous from Dante for its pronounced lean, about 3.25 metres towards east-southeast; the tower was shortened by roughly 20 metres in the 14th century and later belonged to the Drapers' Guild before passing to the city. The exterior was restored in 1998-2000.
Tip: The Asinelli stair is narrow, steep and wooden. Garisenda is not climbable. The listed address is Piazza di Porta Ravegnana and the official booking site is [Due Torri Bologna](https://www.duetorribologna.com/).
Official site →The 13th-century Uguzzoni Tower stands among the narrow lanes of the former Ghetto. Unlike many earlier towers, it has an ogival doorway close to street level and two passageways running along its sides, one with a terracotta window in a 15th-century style. Some of the selenite blocks at its base appear to be original. The ghetto itself was created in 1556, closed at night through several gates and permanently cleared of its Jewish population by Clement VIII in 1593; the Jewish Museum now tells the longer history of Jewish life in Bologna and Emilia-Romagna.
The original Guidozagni structure collapsed in 1487 and was rebuilt as a tower-house, a reminder of the feudal rivalries that shaped the city. Prendiparte, called the Coronata because of its four spires on each side, was built beside the Archbishop's Palace in the second half of the 12th century and reaches 58.60 metres. Its walls narrow from 2.80 metres at the base to 1.35 metres above; it later served as an Ecclesiastical Court jail, and prisoners' graffiti survive inside. Azzoguidi was measured at 54.80 metres in 1983, shorter than earlier estimates of 60-61 metres, and its base contains a shop cut into the selenite.
Tip: The Prendiparte belongs to a private owner and can be visited through arranged tower tours. The Azzoguidi tower is also known as Torre Altabella in later walking itineraries.
The belltower of San Pietro was raised around a pre-existing Byzantine cylindrical tower. The Lambertini Tower, also called the Tower of the People's Captain, is built into Palazzo Re Enzo and was known as the Tower of Women because it served as a women's jail. The Arengo Tower rises 47 metres above the Voltone and received its 4,700-kilogram campanazzo in 1453, installed by Aristotele Fioravanti. Back at Piazza Maggiore, the Clock Tower occupies the junction with Via IV Novembre; its clock was installed in the 15th century after the tower was raised.
Bologna's porticoes turn movement through the city into an architectural experience. The full network reaches 53 kilometres when the stretches outside the walls are included, with more than 38 kilometres through the centre. The familiar story begins when upper floors were projected over the pavement and supported by wooden beams on stone or selenite blocks. The city first treated these additions as abuses, then regulated them and made the ground-level passage public even when the building above was private. The result is a continuous civic shelter where shops, churches, museums and homes meet.
| Route detail | Listed information | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| Full network | 38 km through the centre; 53 km including the stretches outside the walls | The city can often be crossed without an umbrella |
| Walking variant | Start Strada Maggiore 43; finish Via Saragozza 235; about 5.6 km and 2 hours 30 minutes | Santa Maria dei Servi, Casa Isolani, San Giacomo, Archiginnasio, Via Altabella and San Luca |
| Long San Luca stretch | About 3,796-3,800 metres and 666 arches | From the Meloncello Arch to the sanctuary on the Colle della Guardia |
| Alemanni extension | 167 arches and about 650 metres, built 1619-1631 | The oldest extramural portico, linking Porta Maggiore with Santa Maria Lacrimosa degli Alemanni |
The Pavaglione is one of Bologna's most elegant covered walks. Its name is associated with the pavilion that once hosted a silkworm cocoon market. The Civic Archaeological Museum and the Archiginnasio stand beneath it, and the Archiginnasio's 1563 portico is paved in marble with fossil shells. The covered route makes the university palace, San Petronio and Piazza Galvani feel like one continuous civic room.
The Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi was built from 1346 to 1386, with later work continuing through the 19th century. The four-sided portico includes the arches added towards Porta Maggiore in 1492 and the façade stretch built in 1515. Inside is Cimabue's Maestà. Nearby Casa Isolani preserves one of the city's rare wooden porticoes, with high oak beams dating from the 13th century. The Basilica of San Giacomo later adds an elegant Renaissance portico of fluted sandstone columns.
Palazzo Grassi on Via Marsala has one of Bologna's oldest surviving wooden porticoes, with Romanesque-Gothic forms, timber beams and terracotta decoration. A 1568 decree ordered the replacement of wooden columns with brick or stone, backed by a fine of ten gold scudi and a three-month deadline. Standardisation continued into 1800, but a few wooden examples survived through the intervention of Count Giovanni Gozzadini. The practical walk also passes the almost ten-metre-high portico of the former Archbishop's Palace on Via Altabella, the 95-centimetre-wide portico on Via Senzanome and the old beccadelli brackets at Casa Berò.
Tip: Via Indipendenza shows how the portico remains an everyday public room: shops, cafés and Saturday promenades stay sheltered in every season.
The portico from Porta Saragozza to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca began in 1674 and runs for about 3,796 metres under 666 arches. The entrance gallery at Porta Saragozza dates from 1675 and the Meloncello Arch, designed by Carlo Francesco Dotti, was added in 1732. The sanctuary stands on the Colle della Guardia; Dotti gave it its present form in the 18th century around an icon of the Madonna and Child traditionally linked to the evangelist Luke. Inside are works by Donato Creti, Guido Reni, Guercino, Vittorio Bigari and Domenico Pestrini, with a silver covering attributed to Jan Jacobs of Brussels and façade decoration from 1775.
Tip: The city walking profile is about 289 metres high with a 215-metre rise, an average gradient near 10 percent and steeper sections. The terrace uses a narrow historic stair, but the view reaches across Bologna towards the Apennines.
Official site →The portico linking the San Luca route with the Certosa was built between 1811 and 1831 with funds donated by Luigi Valeriani and citizens' groups. It creates a symbolic continuity between the city of the living and the city of the dead. Each year Bologna renews the procession of the Madonna to the city, a tradition associated with the drought of 1443 and the belief that the rains ended when the image entered Bologna.