Towers of Bologna

The porticoes of Bologna are an important cultural and architectural heritage of Bologna, Italy and represent a symbol of the city together with the numerous towers. No other city in the world has as many porticoes as Bologna: all together, they cover more than 38 kilometres (24 mi) only in the historic centre, but can reach up to 53 kilometres (33 mi) if those outside the medieval city walls are also considered.

On account of their cultural and artistic significance, in 2021 the porticoes of Bologna have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Giovanni Gozzadini (15 October 1810 – 25 August 1887) was an Italian archaeologist.

The last male heir of a noble family in Bologna, that had given the city men-at-arms, doctors, and jurists, Giovanni was a highly educated man in other areas such as politics. His excavations in a necropolis on his property at Villanova (Castenaso, eight kilometres south-east of Bologna), lasting from 1853 to 1855, involved 193 tombs, six of which were separated from the rest as if to signify a special social status. The "well tomb" pit graves lined with stones contained funerary urns. Thus were unearthed the first remains of the Villanovan culture, the first Iron Age culture in ancient Italy. The name Villanovan derives from that of the estate owned by Gozzadini.

The Two Towers (Italian: Due torri), both leaning, are symbols of Bologna, Italy, and the most prominent of the Towers of Bologna. They are located at the intersection of the roads that lead to the five gates of the old ring wall (mura dei torresotti). The taller one is the Asinelli; the smaller, with a greater lean, is the Garisenda. They are named for the families which are traditionally credited with having constructed them between 1109 and 1119.

Their construction may have been a competition between the two families to show which was the more powerful, but the scarcity of documents from this period makes this uncertain. The name of the Asinelli family, for example, is documented for the first time in 1185, almost 70 years after the presumed construction of the tower.