The Chapel of Santa Maria dei Bulgari
On the ground floor there are some ancient halls which were intended for professors and janitors and that are now home to the Medical Surgical Society and to the Academy of Agriculture.
In the centre, in the eastern side of the courtyard and in front of the entrance door, there is the Chapel of Santa Maria dei Bulgari. Its name reminds that of a church which stood in "curia Bulgari", near the houses of the famous jurist Bulgaro (12th century).
The chapel preserves the remains of a cycle of frescoes with "Stories of the Life of the Virgin" (1591-1594), by the Bolognese painter Bartolomeo Cesi, who was one of the greatest interpreters of the late-fifteenth-century Bolognese figurative culture. Unfortunately, the frescoes were largely destroyed because of the air raid that, on the 29th January 1944, had devastated the eastern side of the building.
The chapel was rebuilt after the war by restoring the stucco profiles that delimited the individual frescoes, according to a mannerist system in which the panels approached each other like many framed canvases.
On the high altar there is the altarpiece of the "Annunciation" (1582) by the Flemish artist Denis Calvaert (around 1540 - 1619), founder of a school where artists like Guido Reni and Francesco Albani will be trained.
