The porticoes of Bologna were built almost spontaneously, probably in the early Middle Ages, as a projection of private buildings onto public land, in order to increase living spaces.

[5] In the following centuries, the arcades allowed buildings to accommodate the large influx of students and scholars at the University of Bologna and immigration from the countryside.

[6] During all the Middle Ages, the arcades were made of wood, then, following a decree issued on 26 March 1568 by the pontifical governor Giovanni Battista Doria and the so-called gonfaloniere Camillo Paleotti, they were rebuilt with bricks or stones.

[7] It connects Porta Saragozza (one of the twelve gates of the medieval walls encircling the old city) with the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.

Its porticos provide shelter for the traditional procession which every year since 1433 has carried a Byzantine icon of the Madonna with Child attributed to Luke the Evangelist down to the Bologna Cathedral during the Feast of the Ascension.