Palazzo Pepoli. Museum of the History of Bologna hosts Back to Bo: three new virtual tours in ancient Bologna – Tower&Power, Bononia, Al Canel – created by Itimere.

Through a virtual reality viewer, visitors can immerse themselves in the streets and alleys of the medieval city, the one with a hundred towers, or stroll among the domus and streets of the Roman period, or still experience the teeming streets of Bologna with waters at the end of the XVIII century, an important textile production center thanks to its canals that are now almost completely underground.
With this project, the Museum of the History of Bologna increasingly aims to qualify as an essential place for the visitor who wants to discover, in an engaging and interactive way, the origins of the city of Bologna through new technologies.

The routes:

Bononia
A journey into Bononia of the 1st century AD, to walk between thistles (the maximum, from north to south, corresponded to the current via Galliera) and decumani (the east-west direction is today that of via Rizzoli and via Ugo Bassi), admire the imposing buildings, made splendid by the emperor Augustus, discover the ancient masonry Theater, one of the most important of the time, which Nerone wanted to embellish and expand. And yet the suburb, the basilica, place of trials, commerce and administrative activities of the city, and the forum, the main square of the city, which extended to the west of the current Piazza Maggiore.

Tower&Power
The Bologna of a hundred towers that dotted the city skyline in the 13th century, making it unique: a symbol of wealth and power, of course, but also a defensive fort and refuge for the quarrelsome Bolognese magnate families, engaged in the fierce opposition between papal and imperial factions. The tour ranges from Piazza Santo Stefano to the towers of Garisenda and Asinelli, entering Strada Maggiore, the alleys, the markets, and entering the magnificent internal courtyards of the buildings and the house-shops. A magnificent flight experience in medieval Bologna kicks off from inside the – now lost – Torre Corradi.

Al Canel
The extraordinary and unexpected charm of the city of waters, as it must have appeared at the end of the 18th century: gliding along the Reno canal, which led to the city through the trellis of via della Grada, the virtual traveler will find himself immersed in the Bologna of the teeming time of passers-by, laundresses and boatmen, or inside one of the hundreds of water-powered factories used for the ancient silk manufacturing, one of the most flourishing manufacturing activities in Bologna. The virtual journey will end on a boat from the port, which was located in the current via Don Minzoni, up to the Bova lock, outside the circle of walls.