The three arrows of Strada Maggiore and the secrets of Bologna

Bologna is the city of porticoes, dozens of kilometres of covered walkways that since 2021 have been part of UNESCO's World Heritage. Beneath one of them, on Strada Maggiore, hides a detail that escapes most passers-by: three arrows stuck in the wooden ceiling. Around this small enigma has grown one of the legends most loved by the Bolognese, part of the tradition of the city's so-called secrets.

Casa Isolani and its portico

The arrows are found beneath the portico of Casa Isolani, one of the oldest buildings in Bologna, dating from the thirteenth century. The portico is supported by very tall oak beams, which make it one of the rare surviving examples of a medieval wooden portico of such height. Beside the building opens the Corte Isolani, a passage linking Strada Maggiore with Piazza Santo Stefano.

The portico's importance goes beyond the legend. Bologna's porticoes arose in the Middle Ages to extend the living space of upper floors, and the city statutes eventually made them compulsory along the main streets. The one at Casa Isolani bears witness to the earliest phase of this history, when the structures were still made of wood.

The legend of the three archers

According to the tale handed down, three assassins were hired to kill a nobleman who lived in the house. Lying in wait beneath the portico, they awaited the right moment to loose their arrows. Just then, at a window of the house opposite, a very beautiful woman appeared, naked according to the more mischievous versions. Distracted by the apparition, the archers missed their aim and the arrows lodged in the ceiling.

Other variants say that it was the woman herself, the nobleman's wife or lover, who saved him with a stratagem, or that the arrows were shot as a sign of challenge. None of these versions has documentary support, and the real origin of the arrows remains unknown. They may have been placed there at a later time, perhaps during a restoration, feeding a story that has since passed from one generation to the next.

The other secrets of Bologna

The three arrows belong to a small repertoire of curiosities that the Bolognese love to show visitors. Beneath the Voltone of the Palazzo del Podestà, for example, two people whispering in opposite corners of the vault can hear each other perfectly, thanks to an acoustic effect caused by the shape of the architecture. It is said that the phenomenon was once used to hear the confessions of lepers without coming near them, but this tradition lacks any proof.

In Via Piella a small window opened in a wall reveals a glimpse of the Canale delle Moline, a reminder that Bologna was once crossed by a network of artificial canals. Those canals powered mills and silk manufactories, and were largely covered over during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today they remain visible at only a few points.

The three arrows of Strada Maggiore teach us something about the way cities build their identity. An unexplained detail becomes a story, the story is enriched with variants and ends up turning into a small collective ritual: looking up beneath the portico, searching for the arrows, telling their tale. That is how a legend stays alive.