Municipal Theatre

The space occupied today by the Municipal Theatre was one of the places where the magnificence of the Bentivoglio family expressed itself most clearly for several decades. It was here, in fact, where the Domus Magna stood, a building that contemporaries likened to the most opulent palazzos of Italian seigneurial power.
In line with city tradition, the building had a large portico on the front – the work of Pagno di Lapo Portigiani – connected with that on the façades of the surrounding buildings, thus connoting a homogeneous urban space and the centre of the family’s power that dominated Bologna in the 15th century. In 1507, following Pope Julius II’s conquest of the city and the re-establishment of papal power there, the Palazzo was mercilessly plundered, reducing the area to a ‘guasto’ (a toponym still gracing the street bordering the current opera house), i.e., an incongruous heap of rubble. The area remained in this state until the mid-18th century, when the Senate decided to build an opera house for the entire city and entrusted the project to Antonio Galli Bibiena in 1755.
Of the two ideas submitted, the simplest was preferred, featuring a portico with Doric columns that gave the foyer light. The upper floor remained unfinished until the 1930s, when it was completed with a deep terrace by Umberto Rizzi.