Portico di San Luca

Interesting facts

By one way of counting the arcade has exactly 666 arches, and tradition links that number of the beast to the snake-like portico crushed by the Virgin at its summit.

On 17 October 1677 silk-mill workers and townspeople formed a human chain to pass building materials up the hill, an event re-enacted every October since 2003.

The annual procession of the icon grew out of the so-called rain miracle of 5 July 1433, when heavy spring rains reportedly stopped as the image entered Bologna.

The flat stretch to the Meloncello arch has 316 arches over about 1.5 km, while the climb to the sanctuary has 350 arches and fifteen chapels of the Rosary.

Before the arcade existed, pilgrims hung pictures of the mysteries of the Rosary on the trees lining the road, which had been paved by the city in 1589.

A first, modest design by Camillo Saccenti in 1655 was dropped for lack of money; private citizens revived the scheme in 1673 and raised the funds themselves.

Many painted coats of arms that once decorated the lunettes above the arches were lost during a restoration campaign in 1955.

From 1931 to 1976 a cable car also carried visitors up to the sanctuary, an alternative to the long walk under the arches.

The road beside the climbing arcade is a classic cycling ascent: the Giro dell'Emilia tackles it five times, and Charly Gaul won a Giro d'Italia time trial here in 1956.

A girls' orphanage operated beside the portico from 1930 to 1994, and its building along the arcade is still known as le orfanelle.

Why it is worth it

From the edge of Bologna's old town a continuous covered arcade sets off across the plain and climbs a wooded hill to a domed sanctuary on the summit. At close to 3.8 km and with about 666 arches, the Portico di San Luca is considered the longest portico in the world — a single sheltered walkway leading from the city to the pilgrimage church of the Madonna di San Luca.

The arcade was built to protect the annual procession in which a venerated icon of the Virgin is carried down from the sanctuary into Bologna. Local tradition holds that the image was painted by Saint Luke and brought from Constantinople in the 12th century by a pilgrim. Work on the portico began in 1674 under the architect Gian Giacomo Monti; after his death in 1692 it was carried on by others, including Carlo Francesco Dotti, who designed the Meloncello arch of 1721, where the arcade crosses the road and turns uphill. From there the climb runs about 2.3 km, with chapels spaced at intervals of roughly twenty arches. The ochre-red arches were paid for largely by the citizens themselves, and much of the arcade was restored in 2019.

At the top stands the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, rebuilt by Dotti from 1723 and completed with its dome in the 1760s, on the Colle della Guardia about 300 metres above the city plain. In 2021 the portico became part of the Porticoes of Bologna, inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna and home to the oldest university in Europe, is known for its many kilometres of street arcades; the San Luca portico is their longest and most ambitious extension.

Getting there

The portico begins near Porta Saragozza on the edge of Bologna's historic centre, about 1 km from the city centre, and leads to the sanctuary on the Colle della Guardia. The nearest airport is Bologna Guglielmo Marconi (BLQ), about 6 km away.

Portico di San Luca

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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