Why go
Look beyond the medieval towers to see how papal government staged civic and religious authority. Piazza del Nettuno, Palazzo dei Banchi and the Archiginnasio are close enough to compare on one walk. The city's painting tradition gives an additional reason to include a gallery or church interior.
The full story
Bologna entered a long period within the Papal States in the early sixteenth century. The city retained civic institutions, but papal authority set the larger political frame. In 1530, Pope Clement VII crowned Charles V emperor at San Petronio, turning Bologna's main church into the setting for an event normally associated with Rome. The papal era also changed the streets around Piazza Maggiore. The sixteenth-century building of Piazza del Nettuno, Palazzo dei Banchi and the Archiginnasio gave the centre a more formal appearance. The Archiginnasio brought university teaching together in a prominent building; its Anatomical Theatre makes that academic role tangible today. Churches and religious houses were built or renewed across the city. Bologna's painters, including the Carracci family, Domenichino and Guercino, helped form a school with influence well beyond Emilia-Romagna. Rather than treating this period as an abstract change of rulers, compare the broad civic spaces near San Petronio with the tight lanes around the towers. The shift in scale is part of the story.