Galliera Castle: A Papal Fortress in Bologna, Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Papal States
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Galliera Castle is a fortress in Bologna, Italy, built by representatives of the papal government beside the city’s historic walls at Porta Galliera. The first fortress was constructed between 1330 and 1332 as a residence for the pope if he returned to Italy but did not go to Rome. It later served as a seat of papal government and as a base for securing papal authority against Bologna’s population.
The first fortress, 1327 to 1334
Cardinal legate Bertrand du Pouget, the pope’s representative in Bologna, entered the city on 5 February 1327. In 1329 he asked the engineers and sculptors Agostino di Giovanni and Agnolo di Ventura to find a suitable location for a fortress. They selected the area at Porta Galliera, where construction began in 1330 and ended in 1332.
Bertrand du Pouget lived in the new stronghold until March 1334. A revolt then drove him from Bologna and forced him to seek refuge in Florence. The fortress was attacked and its demolition began on 17 March 1334. It was eventually completely razed.
Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century rebuilding
A second fortress was founded above the ruins on 30 July 1404 by Cardinal legate Baldassarre Cossa. The city acquired the houses needed for the work, while the cost of the land was divided between the municipality and the legate. Grass soon covered the northern walls, leading to the popular name “della Verda,” meaning “of the green.” A revolt destroyed this fortress on 28 May 1411.
Construction of a third fortress began on 8 March 1413. It was smaller than the first and followed a different, more robust plan, with walls about 4.4 metres thick. The people of Bologna demolished it on 5 April 1416. A fourth fortress, intended to shield the papal government from the city’s population, was begun on 20 December 1436 and destroyed before 25 August 1443.
The fifth fortress and its destruction
The first stone of a fifth fortress was laid on 20 January 1507 at 2 p.m., a time chosen according to the horoscope of reputed astrologers. Pope Julius II, who ordered the project, cursed those responsible for destroying the earlier fortresses and offered the site foreman 20 gold ducats. Bologna’s masons were compelled to work, peasants had to transport materials without payment, and property owners had to provide lime, stone, and other supplies. In 1508, the construction engineer was appointed bishop of Nicaea by the pope.
The fifth fortress stood for four years before the population destroyed it at 11 a.m. on 27 May 1511. Across the site’s history, five fortresses were destroyed and four were rebuilt, reflecting repeated revolts against the papal legates. The accumulated rubble formed a mound to the north, later known as the Montagnola. The area was laid out as a public garden in 1662, while local tradition attributes the raised ground to debris from the successive demolitions and reconstructions.
The surviving ruins are recognized as Italian national heritage and as Italian cultural property.
Remains
The first fortress
The first Galliera fortress measured 200 paces in length and 300 paces in width, approximately 295 by 441 metres. Large towers and crenellated walls enclosed the complex, which was surrounded by deep ditches. A northern gate opened toward the countryside, while a southern gate faced the city.
The southern entrance led to a large open esplanade. Creating it required the city to purchase 19 houses. Within the fortress stood a chapel decorated with frescoes by Giotto, a major Italian painter of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, together with a marble altarpiece by the fourteenth-century sculptor Giovanni di Balduccio.
The fifth fortress
The fifth fortress was the largest and best-defended of the five. It extended beyond Bologna’s city walls and incorporated escarpments, sloping or steeply battered outer faces designed to strengthen a defensive work, together with a ditch on the southern side. Eight large towers rose along walls built of gravel and lime. Their stated thickness was 12 braccia, a traditional measure, approximately 14 metres.
The complex consisted of two connected sections. The castle proper occupied the side within the city, while a citadel stood outside the walls. The citadel contained two broad streets, each about 4 metres wide, with three rows of 100 houses arranged along them to accommodate the garrison. The fortress was reputed to have cost 40,000 ducats, not including its foundations.
The surviving landscape
Today, the surviving ruins stand beside the monumental staircase of Montagnola Park, near the beginning of Via Indipendenza. They represent the remains of a fortress repeatedly rebuilt and destroyed during Bologna’s conflicts with papal government.
