Historical building, Bologna
Palazzo d’Accursio, also called Palazzo Comunale, is one of the wonderful buildings that overlook Piazza Maggiore in Bologna.
Its history begins in the Middle Ages with the law professor Accursio who in the 13th century lived in the porticoed part of this building, now having a 15th-century clock tower on top. In 1287, Accursio sold his house to the city that turned it into a public wheat warehouse and later in a residence for the city consuls (1336). From that moment on, the building officially became the headquarters of the city administration.
Palazzo d’Accursio consists of a group of buildings that create a kind of square-shaped citadel with its facade turned to the square. Many artists have worked at the exterior decoration of the Accursio Palace across the centuries, such as Niccolò dell’Arca, who sculpted a Madonna with Child in terracotta which you can see on the left. Under the sandstone window, to the right of the entrance gate, there are two little eagles, one of which has been attributed to Michelangelo.
Near the Madonna we can see the bronze statue of Pope Gregory XIII, who was closely related to the story of the city as he came from the bolognese Boncompagni family. This statue dates back to 1580 and was placed inside the 16th-century gate designed by Galeazzo Alessi and Domenico Tibaldi. At the base of the walls, you can see the units of measurement carved in the stone that were used for the creation of bricks and roof tiles, such as “braccio”, “pertica” and “piede” of Bologna.
The two main units of Palazzo Comunale are set on either side of the gate. On the left we can see a crenellated, fortresslike building that housed the legate cardinal in the 1500s, the ruler of the city, erected on the spot where Accursio had his home.
On the right hand there is Sala Borsa instead, the public library of Bologna since 2001, that stands upon the area of an ancient medicinal herb garden. This garden was created by Ulisse Aldrovandi near the summer residence of the papal legate, in order to show the medical students which plants to use to prepare medicaments. With its peculiar cast iron and glass structure, it’s surely worth the visit.
