Landmark
Via del Pratello
Porticoed bar street built over a sealed medieval city gate, walled up after a fatal political plot.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Via del Pratello in Bologna turns on a single summer day in fourteen forty-five, when the young ruler Annibale Bentivoglio was killed in a conspiracy by rival noble families and Bologna's response reached this exact gateway. It also follows the street's long slide from washerwomen to prostitutes to postwar artisans, on the way to its rebirth as Bologna's nightlife strip. Best heard walking slowly toward Via Sant'Isaia, watching for the two cypress trees that still mark the old city wall.
This audio guide was created using AI.