User:Jme141/San Vitale, Bologna

San Vitale is a former district of the city of Bologna. It was merged with the San Donato district in 2016.

History
The name refers to the old San Vitale Road, which ran eastward from Bologna's city centre via Porta San Vitale to meet the Idice river at Castenaso. It remains the neighbourhood's main thoroughfare and is now divided into two streets: via Massarenti and via Mattei.

Administrative history
The San Vitale district was founded in 1962 and was expanded to include the Irnerio area of the city's historic centre in 1985. In 2016, San Vitale was dissolved and became part of the San Donato-San Vitale district, with Irnerio joining the Santo Stefano district.

Economy
Industrial activity in the district is concentrated in the Roveri area. One of the main businesses is the printing office of local newspaper il Resto del Carlino, which moved here in 1969 into a building designed by Enzo Zacchiroli.

Human geography
The neighbourhood is part of the San Donato-San Vitale district and the corresponding statistical zone. The urban area is centred around via Massarenti and is formed of various areas including Via Larga, Scandellara and Santa Rita.


 * Cirenaica

A working-class neighbourhood that emerged in 1930 between the Bologna–Florence railway and Via Massarenti.


 * Croce del Biacco

A residential area on the outskirts of the neighbourhood, on the other side of the Bologna ring road, with Piazza dei Colori at its centre. Its name derives from a historic rural settlement surrounding the Church of San Giacomo, mentioned in records from 1271, and comes from the engraving Crux B. Jacobi on a cross.


 * Roveri

An industrial zone centred around Via Mattei and the former San Donato freight yard, born in the late 1960s following the construction of the Bologna ring road. The industrialisation of the city's North-Eastern outskirts was confirmed in the 1960s and 1970s under the City Development Master Plan and its variants.