Casa Isolani Medieval Wood Portico

Why is it significant?

Pause beneath the towering timber portico of Casa Isolani at number 19 Strada Maggiore, one of the rarest and best-preserved examples of thirteenth-century civil architecture in Bologna.

Key Facts

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Pause beneath the towering timber portico of Casa Isolani at number 19 Strada Maggiore, one of the rarest and best-preserved examples of thirteenth-century civil architecture in Bologna. Built around 1250, this magnificent merchant townhouse preserves the original wooden portico structure that once lined all of Bologna's streets before city statutes in 1568 prohibited new wooden construction due to severe fire hazards. Three colossal oak beams, standing nearly nine meters tall and tapering gracefully as they rise from stone bases, support the overhanging upper floors with timber crossbeams and carved wooden brackets. Looking up into the shadowy ceiling, the weathered grain of the ancient timber reveals the ingenuity of medieval carpenters who could span wide public sidewalks while providing sheltered living quarters for patrician families above. The weathered timber surfaces tell the story of medieval craftsmanship, demonstrating how ancient builders used local timber and inventive joinery to create enduring public colonnades.

Look closely up at the dark wooden ceiling beams near the third beam: if you look carefully at an angle, you will spot three mysterious iron arrowheads embedded deeply into the antique wood. According to popular Bolognese legend, three hired assassins sent to murder an adulterous nobleman on this street were suddenly distracted by the sight of a beautiful naked woman appearing at the upper window, misfiring their crossbow arrows straight up into the ceiling beams.

In the year 1288, the Bolognese commune enacted a revolutionary law requiring all property owners to build porticoes at least seven Bolognese feet high and wide—enough for a man on horseback wearing a tall hat to ride through comfortably.

Feel the cool breeze passing through the covered passage of Corte Isolani: it connects Strada Maggiore directly to the picturesque Piazza Santo Stefano.

Continue east along Strada Maggiore until you arrive at the magnificent quadriportico of Santa Maria dei Servi.