Piazza Giuseppe Verdi

Piazza Giuseppe Verdi is defined by the massive, neoclassical facade of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the city’s historic municipal opera house. Opened in seventeen sixty-three, the theater was built on the site of the former Bentivoglio family palace, which was destroyed by an angry mob in fifteen oh seven after the family was banished from the city. For centuries, the empty lot was known as the Guasto, or the ruin, until the municipality commissioned the architect Antonio Galli Bibiena to design a new public theater on the grounds.