Piazza Cavour

It is an integral part of the component with a marked post-Unification identity and acquired its name upon the death of the statesman Camillo Benso, which occurred at the same time the square was designed.
Considered the city’s parlour since its construction, the square is the result of transformations taken place between 1859 and 1866 under the aegis of the first technical office of Bologna of the united Italy, guided by the engineer Coriolano Monti.
In truth, the origin dates to the final moments of papal management and to the aims of grandeur of Count Grabinski, owner of Palazzo Ruini Ranuzzi who wanted to widen the service road to his property and connect it to the throbbing heart of the old town centre. The difficulties Monti encountered once he took office pushed him to speed up the process. At one point he worked by night to level one of the buildings blocking the start of the new road. At this point, the two buildings at the centre of the debate were definitively sacrificed, inflicting great damage on the city's heritage. In fact, there was a remarkable cycle of frescoes by Lodovico Carracci inside one of the buildings, the Benati home. It was quickly removed, but is now mostly lost, with only one extant panel that can be seen today in the Reference Hall of the Archiginnasio Library.
The buildings that still surround it today began to take shape in 1861 with the new widening of the road. To the east is Palazzo Guidotti (already existing but pared down to regularise its façade) and the Palazzine Bottrigari. On the south side is Palazzo Silvani, the Palazzo of the Bank of Italy is to the west and, to the north is the building that in 1927 was to become Banca di Napoli.
Indeed, together with the not-too-distant Cassa di Risparmio, this city section is distinguished precisely by the presence of numerous banks, which over the years has imparted a tone of decorum and sober monumentality.