Palazzo Re Enzo

Most people cross Piazza Maggiore staring up at the basilica and walk straight past Palazzo Re Enzo. The big red-brick palace on the north side of the square has the better story. It was built in the 1240s, and within a few years it became the gilded jail of a captured king who spent the last 23 years of his life inside it. You can't wander in whenever you like, but the building opens its doors more often than you'd expect.

Built

1244–1246

Where

Piazza Maggiore, north side

Style

Medieval Gothic, red brick

Inside access

Event days only

Why it's called the King's Palace

The name comes from Enzo of Sardinia, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Bologna's army captured him at the Battle of Fossalta in 1249, and the city held him here as a prized political hostage. He wasn't thrown in a dungeon. Enzo lived in reasonable comfort on an upper floor with servants and visitors, but he was never freed. He stayed in the palace until he died in 1272, twenty-three years a prisoner. The building has carried his name ever since.

It started life with a more bureaucratic job. Finished around 1246 as an extension of the neighbouring civic buildings, it was first called the Palazzo Nuovo, the "new palace." The ground floor held shops, barracks for the Podestà's soldiers and the city prisons. The People's Council met on the floor above. Turning it into a royal cell was almost an afterthought.

What you're looking at from the square

From outside you get the full Gothic package: warm red brickwork, pointed arches, a crenellated roofline and a covered loggia at street level that connects to the older council palace next door. Look for the open staircase, the Scalone del Pincio, that climbs from the courtyard. Inside, when it's open, there's a quiet courtyard with an old sandstone well, and a small chapel, the Cappella di Santa Maria dei Carcerati (Saint Mary of the Prisoners), which was where condemned prisoners spent their last night. British artist David Tremlett redecorated it in modern style, an odd and striking contrast to the medieval bones around it.

Can you go inside?

Yes, but not on demand. Palazzo Re Enzo is run as an events venue today, so it hosts conferences, fairs, art exhibitions, craft markets and the odd concert. It's open to the public only when one of those is on, which works out to well over a hundred days a year, but you can't count on it being open the morning you happen to walk by. When an exhibition or free public event is running, you can usually go in and see the courtyard and main halls.

Where it sits on Piazza Maggiore

Palazzo Re Enzo anchors the corner where Piazza Maggiore meets the smaller Piazza del Nettuno. That means everything else is a few steps away. Giambologna's muscular Neptune fountain is right outside the door. Across the square stands the half-finished Basilica di San Petronio, the giant whose marble facade was never completed. From the same spot it's a short walk east to the leaning Asinelli tower and its 498-step climb, or into the food lanes of the old market quarter.

How to fit it into your day

Treat Palazzo Re Enzo as part of a Piazza Maggiore loop rather than a standalone stop. Start in the square, look up at the palace and the basilica, then drift into the covered food hall for lunch. Bookworms should detour to the Archiginnasio and its anatomical theatre a couple of minutes south. If you have a free afternoon, the whole centre is walkable, so chain it with the Seven Churches of Santo Stefano or the columns of the UNESCO porticoes.

Staying nearby

Book a hotel around Piazza Maggiore and the palace is on your doorstep, along with most of the sights and the best food in town. Rooms in the centro storico go fast in spring and autumn.

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