Space and Freedom: The San Giovanni in Monte Complex, From Convent and Prison to Home of the University Of Bologna

Space and freedom are intertwined dimensions: the organisation of physical spaces reflects and shapes ways of living and possibilities for expression.

The San Giovanni in Monte Complex embodies this relationship: located on a site inhabited since ancient times, it has served over the centuries as both a convent and a prison. Today it houses the DISCI – Department of History, Cultures, and Civilisations at the University of Bologna, preserving a layered memory that tells of control and confinement in the past, alongside the openness and sharing of knowledge of the present.

We retrace the history of the Complex and its symbolic significance with Professor Roberto Balzani, Director of DISCI.

Professor Balzani, could you walk us through the history of the San Giovanni in Monte Complex?

The San Giovanni in Monte Complex sits atop Bologna’s small “acropolis,” adjacent to the eponymous church, a site of human settlement since ancient times. Traces of a medieval tower house are still visible underground. In its current configuration, the convent dates back to the sixteenth century, subsequently remodelled several times. The cloisters, designed by Terribilia, are among the best-preserved of the local Renaissance; the largest is particularly striking. In 1796, when the French arrived in the city, the large building was secularised and turned into a courthouse and prison. In the reading room of the archaeological section of the library, on the ground floor, a classic symbol of the “Jacobin” period can still be seen, one of the few to survive the systematic purges of the Restoration. The Complex remained a prison until almost the end of the twentieth century, when it was transformed by the University into departmental premises. Today, it forms the core of the Department of History and Cultures.

How have the layout, physical barriers, or architectural features defined the boundaries of freedom within the Complex? How have these changed over time?

The space of San Giovanni in Monte has always been associated with “discipline”: initially, monastic discipline, and later, in the contemporary era, prison discipline. The management of access, the arrangement of cells along corridors, and the designation of rooms for guards and communal functions shaped, over the long term, the lives of the Complex’s inhabitants, whether voluntary or not. Compared to its “prison era,” the current configuration – fully restored in some areas – stands out for its elegance and the size and brightness of its connecting and transitional spaces, designed for meeting and a vibrant academic life. It is worlds apart from the squalor of the previous period, with its incongruous superstructures, constant alterations, and even heavy interventions on Bartolomeo Cesi’s large fresco (1556–1629) in the refectory. With the transition to the University, the building regained the splendour of its most glorious conventual phase.

What does the Complex tell us today about the different forms of confinement it has hosted over time?

A place like San Giovanni in Monte raises several questions: little is known of its origins or of religious life during the Late Middle Ages. Objects and faint traces still exist, but the adjacent church – rich in artworks and uninterrupted evidence of worship – is far more revealing. Secularisation later redefined the use of spaces, compressing prisoners’ living areas and forcing close cohabitation. Images are scarce, partly because prisons are difficult to document for security reasons, and partly because, even after the “Napoleonic” era ended, attention to what remained – telling the story of degradation – was minimal. At the time, few shared an interest in “indeterminate” or liminal spaces.

What is the symbolic value of the Complex as a university site, in light of its history?

The San Giovanni in Monte Complex is undeniably a place of memory: a collection of millennia of sedimented history alongside a sequence of episodes, some richer in detail than long periods of latency and silence. Consider the incarceration of Zvanì Pascoli at the time of the investigation into the International Workingmen’s Association in the 1870s in Bologna, or the grim months of the Nazi occupation, when the cells held victims of the SS Security Service prior to deportation or execution. The Department is planning a valorisation that does not amount to mere museumification: the site should remain, as it is now, a large space for students, faculty, and a variety of cultural activities. At the same time, it must preserve the genius loci, telling its story and encouraging young people and researchers to use this long memory as a stimulus for activities that, while motivated by present concerns, remain connected to the Complex’s core themes: enclosure/freedom, discipline/indiscipline, time of silence/time of speech. Moreover, the very structure of such a monumental site of memory lends itself to bringing together different disciplinary paths – already present within the Department – which can interact around a shared foundation: archaeology, history, anthropology...

The aim is thus to make the San Giovanni in Monte Complex a focal point not only for the city, schools, and occasional visitors, but for the academic community itself. This community may find in the resilience of the restored, reinterpreted, and shared physical memory a common thread, a link that the Department of Excellence, through the establishment of the MemoryLab, has been experimentally developing for several years.