Festival

A great urban festival celebrates the “Portici”, a UNESCO heritage site and Bologna, a creative city, with site-specific artistic interventions, the enhancement of ancient knowledge and special projects.

The “Portici” are the daily space of all Bolognese people and there is no citizen or visitor to the city who remains immune from its charm and they represent a horizon not only architectural-urbanistic but of meaning, relationship, community, which the Bologna Portici Festival wants to transform into a space for the celebration of creativity, culture, past and future of the city.

After the first edition in 2023, the festival is scheduled to take place in 2024 from 4 to 9 June 2024.

The second and new edition of the festival will also be preceded by a preview on 17 and 18 May: the international conference “Heritage Meets the Future”, dedicated to reflection on urban historical heritage and the exchange of best practices in a perspective of comparison between different European cities.

The UNESCO recognition

On 28 July 2021, the Portici of Bologna were awarded the recognition of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The “Portico” is an architectural element adopted for centuries all over the world, but it is in Bologna that it finds its most complete representation: for the total extension of 62 kilometers, unique in the world, for its excellent state of conservation and for the optimal conditions of accessibility and use.

Built starting from the 12th century as a private property but for public use, the arcades have been stratified over the centuries, distinguishing themselves for their styles, materials, types, and becoming the most characteristic element of city identity, as well as a place of sociality and relationship.

There are 12 overall features of Portici identified as a heritage subject to UNESCO protection and recognition, for their peculiarities and for their original and substantial contribution to the “Exceptional Universal Value” of the complex.

For more information: http://www.comune.bologna.it/portici