Sala Ercole / Hercules' Hall

It still retains the original Renaissance layout, with additions made in the 17th and 18th centuries.The terracotta statue depicting Hercules killing the Hydra of Lerna (1519), painted in mock bronze, was made by Alfonso Lombardi (the author of Bologna's Four Patron Saints placed under the Podestà vaulted arcade); it may hint at the fall of the Bentivoglio family and the final reinstatement of the Papal rule over the town.

A fresco depicting the Madonna of the Earthquake by Francesco Francia is found on the right wall: originally it was painted on the wall of the nearby Elders' Chapel as ex voto for the 1505 earthquake and it was moved to its present location in the 19th century.

At the entrance we find bas-relief casts of Fontaine des Innocents in Paris, a gift of France to Bologna Municipality in the 1930's,
as a memento of the French sculptor Jean Goujon who was active in Bologna in the second half of the 16th century.

Text by Carla Bernardini and Gilberta Franzoni
(Musei Civici d'Arte Antica - www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/MuseiCivici)