Bologna Cittá Dell’Acqua: Bagni di Mario

While nowadays one does not necessarily associate Bologna with water, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, between the late 12th century and the early 13th century, Bologna was connected to Venice via the 22-mile long Navile Canal. Most of the canal is now covered up, but there are a few places around the city where one can see parts of it.

Putting the canal aside, today’s tour took us to another facility for which Bologna is known as the “City of Water” — the erroneously named “Baths of Mario.”

We met up with our guide, Margherita, and the rest of the group at the Chiesa di Santissima Annunziata. The church was founded in 1304 by Armenian Basilian Monks. It was remodeled in 1475, and again during the 17th century when the bell tower was added.

The last time we were in the area, the church was locked up tight, and the portico was filled with homeless people sleeping on makeshift mattresses. Arriving early for our tour, we noted that the door to the church was open and there were no homeless sleeping in the portico. We took advantage of the few minutes we had before Sunday mass to go inside the church to see the stained glass windows and stroll down the portico to peek at the 16th century frescos.

Once everyone had gathered, Margherita gave us some information about the bagni. As seems to be the case more often than not, the tour was in Italian. Our live translation app struggled with Margherita’s rapid-fire speech. But having read up on the Bagni di Mario, we managed to capture the gist of the information she shared.

From the church, we walked about ½ mile — slightly uphill — to the bagni. Luckily, there was shade most of the way up and we had water to sustain us. Once inside, the temperature was a lovely 68F (20C) … consistent year round from what I understand. We’d been warned to bring jackets, which we dutifully put on at the entrance, but frankly, we did not need them. We did, however, need the flashlights that we were also told to bring … no lighting whatsoever inside.

The ‘baths’ are actually a cistern that was constructed inside the Hill of Valverde (Green Valley) back in the 16th century. This complex hydraulic engineering project, a Renaissance-era water collection system, was known as “Conserva di Valverde” (Valverde Reservoir) and was designed to boost the water flowing into Bologna.

The underground cistern was a city-renewal project undertaken on the orders of Pope Pius IV. Constructed in 1563, an architect from Palermo was given the job of designing the cistern, which has two levels.

The higher of the two levels consists of a vestibule and an octagonal room covered by a dome. In addition to Gothic arches, the room was decorated with frescoes … only remnants of which have survived to this day.

Groundwater, seeping through the limestone, came into the room via four ducts and was collected and purified in eight small settling tanks around the perimeter of the room. The water then went into the cisternetta, down a short set of stairs off the main room, where it was further purified. This tank had critter and debris traps at either end to make sure nothing ‘unwanted’ was piped down to the lower level of the cistern.

From the lower level, the water flowed through a brick tunnel to the Chiesa di Santissima Annunziata and merged with the water coming down from San Michele in Bosco. The water then traveled approximately 1.3 miles to feed several fountains … including the Neptune Fountain and the Old Fountain on the side of Palazzo d’Accursio, as well as what is today the covered square of the former Sala Borsa. It also supplied Palazzo d’Accursio, the palace of the Papal Legate, with drinking water.

The cistern remained in use until 1881 when the modern water supply network of Bologna was built.

So why is the cistern commonly referred to as Bagni di Mario?

As it turns out, the original purpose of the cistern was forgotten over the centuries. During the 19th century, the locals mistook it for an ancient Roman bath from the Republican Period … constructed during the time of Caius Marius. Hence the name.

It was an interesting tour … we especially enjoyed the comfy temps inside. And later wrapped up our outing with gelato from our #1 favorite gelateria … Cremeria d’Azeglio.

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P.S. Apologies for the lack of good quality photos at the Bagni di Mario. I was often pointing and shooting in pitch dark and hoping for the best.Read more