Bologna

Sister cities

• San Fele
• La Plata
• Kharkiv
• St. Louis
• Thessaloniki
• Valencia
• Coventry
• Bari
• Leipzig
• Zagreb
• Hamamatsu
• Meknes

History

Traces of human habitation in the area of Bologna go back to the 3rd millennium BCE, with significant settlements from about the 9th century BCE (Villanovan culture). The influence of Etruscan civilization reached the area in the 7th to 6th centuries, and the Etruscan city of Felsina was established at the site of Bologna by the end of the 6th century. By the 4th century BCE, the site was occupied by the Gaulish Boii, and it became a Roman colony and municipium with the name of Bonōnia in 196 BCE. During the waning years of the Western Roman Empire Bologna was repeatedly sacked by the Goths. It is in this period that legendary Bishop Petronius, according to ancient chronicles, rebuilt the ruined town and founded the basilica of Saint Stephen. Petronius is still revered as the patron saint of Bologna. In 727–728, the city was sacked and captured by the Lombards under King Liutprand, becoming part of that kingdom. These Germanic conquerors built an important new quarter, called addizione longobarda (Italian meaning 'Longobard addition') near the complex of St. Stephen. In the last quarter of the 8th century, Charlemagne, at the request of Pope Adrian I, invaded the Lombard Kingdom, causing its eventual demise. Occupied by Frankish troops in 774 on behalf of the papacy, Bologna remained under imperial authority and prospered as a frontier mark of the Carolingian Empire. Bologna was the center of a revived study of law, including the scholar Irnerius ( – after 1125) and his famous students, the Four Doctors of Bologna. Bologna boasts of having one of the oldest universities in the western world (University of Bologna), with a continuous operation since 1088, and the first university in the sense of a higher-learning and degree-awarding institute. The medical school was…

Most recent

• M 4.2 — 2026-03-26
  6 km NNW of Montale, Italy
• M 4.3 — 2026-01-13
  1 km NNW of Fornace Zarattini, Italy
• M 4.6 — 2026-01-13
  2 km N of Fornace Zarattini, Italy
• M 3 — 2024-05-22
  1 km N of Collecchio, Italy
• M 3.7 — 2024-02-17
  5 km SSE of Modigliana, Italy
• M 4.1 — 2024-02-17
  3 km SE of Basilicanova, Italy