Ferrara - FE (ITALY)
Created | Updated Feb 12, 2008
In 1995 UNESCO classified Ferrara's historic centre as a world heritage list, defining it as "...a fine example of a town planned in the Renaissance that has managed to retain the integrity of its historic centre". What follows is a short presentation rewritten from the City Council website.
Ferrara was one of the capitals of the Renaissance when ruled by the Court of the House of Este.
When the court left for Modena remained indelible vestiges such as inestimable gardens that make it one of the greenest cities in Europe..
Although there was a Roman road running the same path of Via Mazzini and Garibaldi, and some Roman villas has been found, Ferrara’s origins date back to the 7th-8th century. A lot of ideas are put forvard: some claim Trojan origins, other biblical ones. The best candidates are a Roman place called Forum Alieni, and Ferraria as place of the faro, a sort of wheat.
The area was subject to big changes in the IV-V century C.E. in the idrogeological layout. Aistulf (a Lombard (longobardo) King) is the first to name the town in a document of the year 754. it was part of the Byzantine domains and after maybe of the Canossa feuds.
As time passed, it was able to set itself up as a self-governing municipality or “Comune”, strenuously defending its hard-won independence by joining the League of Italian Cities, which had formed an alliance against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Its main source of wealth was trade along the Po River, which at the time flowed inside the town. Like many other Italian cities, it was soon a prey of internal sectarian strife between the pro-Emperor party, the so-called Ghibellines, headed by the Torelli-Salinguerra family, and the pro-Pope party, initially led by the Adelardi-Marchesella family and later by the Este family. After a struggle lasting well over a century, this latter family prevailed and established a lordship over the city that was to be one of the longest in Italy. Marquis followed marquis and then duke followed duke. In this long line of successors to the throne, there were many different characters, but all were great lovers of the prestige coming from the patronage of arts and sciences. The court was the hub of an intense cultural life, indeed one of the most intense in Europe, you can refer to the old Will Durant’s The Renaissance. New York: Simon and Schuster(1953).
Its renown attracted artists from all over. There were painters such as Pisanello, Piero della Francesca, Cosmè Tura, Ercole de’ Roberti, Francesco del Cossa, Titian. Men of letters included Petrarch, Guarino Veronese, Ariosto, Tasso. Then there were the great intellectuals of the time, such as Leon Battista Alberti, Biagio Rossetti, Girolamo da Carpi , not to mention famed musicians from across Europe, including Josquin Desprez, Jakob Willaert, Cipriano De Rore, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, and Luzzasco Luzzaschi. Amidst such bountiful intellectual life, the University was founded in 1391.
As in 1597 the last Duke, Alfonso II, died without male heirs, the city considered a Papal fiefdom, was absorbed into the State of the Church.
In the Napoleonic Era was part of various Republic and Kingdoms returning to the Pope, also if desired by the Austrian Empire. When the city was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, it was given provincial-capital status.
There are a lots of monuments both religious as the Cattedrale, the Chiesa del Gesù, the Chiesa di S. Carlo, the Chiesa di S. Cristoforo alla Certosa, the Chiesa di S. Domenico, the Chiesa di S. Francesco, the Chiesa di S. Giorgio, the Chiesa di S. Paolo, the Chiesa di S. Maria in Vado, or of civil use as the Casa di Ludovico Ariosto, Casa Romei, the Castello Estense, Palazzo Bonacossi, Palazzo Costabili said of Ludovico il Moro, the Palazzo dei Diamanti, the Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Palazzo Massari, Palazzo Municipale, Palazzo Paradiso, and Palazzo Schifanoia, many of the latter are seat of museums and civic offices, but the most important monument is the complex of the WALLS surrounding the city.
For those who arrive in Ferrara from some directions, mainly north east, the Walls constitute the first contact with the city: it is a red curtain of brick that encircles the historic centre almost without interruption for nine kilometres, constituting one of the oldest and most impressive defensive systems of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and make use of all the techniques of defence used in the 1400s and 1500s: city gates, bastions, large towers, gun slots and embrasures. Time has transformed these walls into a place for meeting friends, practicing sport and recreation, with paths for cycling and walking. The Addizione Erculea fortifications are the walls to the north that were built between 1493 and 1505 as part of the Addizione Erculea to the design of the architect Biagio Rossetti. This stretch is marked out by the smaller semicircular towers and by the long “patrol path” used by the entries. At the north-west end of the walls stands the Torrione del Barco, an important example of changing military architecture between the 1400s and 1500s. Distinguishing features include the Porta degli Angeli to the north, through which the melancholy retinue of the last duke Cesare d’Este passed in 1598, and, to the east, the Torrione di S. Giovanni, whose circular structure is typical of renaissance military architecture. Beyond the northern earthwork, at one time flooded, extends the vast Giorgio Bassani Park, a setting of plants, open spaces, stretches of water and paths that join Ferrara to the river Po.
The 16th-century bastions are due to the change of the enemy from Venice to the Holy See: this stretch of walls to the east was conceived by Alfonso I d’Este, between 1512 and 1518. Distinguishing features include the Doccile di San Tommaso, a drain for the city’s water, and the artificial hill of the Baluardo della Montagna, where at the end of Via Marco Polo a 17th century garret for guarding the former Porta di San Giorgio can still be seen. The southern fortifications are characterised by four imposing bastions in the form of the “ace of spades” built on the orders of Alfonso II between 1575 and 1585. Along this stretch, Porta di S. Pietro that connects the city with the Po di Volano has been reopened.
The Papal defences (mainly the fortress) were conceived not to protect the city, but to menace it, at the southern entrance of the walls stands Porta Paola, built in 1612 to the design of Giovan Battista Aleotti after Ferrara was devolved to the Papal States. To day, in the stretch of wall that leads from the gate to the west, there are two bastions and a statue of Pope Paul V who commissioned the 17th-century defensive works. A grandiose pentagonal fortress meant to menace the city and help reinforcements coming from Bologna. It was demolished by the people of the town from the Napoleonic era onwards. This part of the city’s defences, between Porta Paola and Viale Belvedere, has undergone the greatest changes.
In the xx century the one most prominent citizen of the town has been Italo Balbo, after being a Ras (an Ethiopian term equal to duke that meant a boss) he led one column of the fascist Blackshirts in the March on Rome (1922) and served under Benito Mussolini as general of militia (1923) and air minister (1929 – 33). Balbo developed Italian military and commercial aviation and became famous for promoting mass international flights to demonstrate Italy's air power. He was appointed governor of Libya in 1933 and died when his plane was accidentally shot down by Italian guns over Tobruk.
Better person were the artist Bassani, Antonioni and other, but all went to live in other towns.
Ferrara was one of the capitals of the Renaissance when ruled by the Court of the House of Este.
When the court left for Modena remained indelible vestiges such as inestimable gardens that make it one of the greenest cities in Europe..
Although there was a Roman road running the same path of Via Mazzini and Garibaldi, and some Roman villas has been found, Ferrara’s origins date back to the 7th-8th century. A lot of ideas are put forvard: some claim Trojan origins, other biblical ones. The best candidates are a Roman place called Forum Alieni, and Ferraria as place of the faro, a sort of wheat.
The area was subject to big changes in the IV-V century C.E. in the idrogeological layout. Aistulf (a Lombard (longobardo) King) is the first to name the town in a document of the year 754. it was part of the Byzantine domains and after maybe of the Canossa feuds.
As time passed, it was able to set itself up as a self-governing municipality or “Comune”, strenuously defending its hard-won independence by joining the League of Italian Cities, which had formed an alliance against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Its main source of wealth was trade along the Po River, which at the time flowed inside the town. Like many other Italian cities, it was soon a prey of internal sectarian strife between the pro-Emperor party, the so-called Ghibellines, headed by the Torelli-Salinguerra family, and the pro-Pope party, initially led by the Adelardi-Marchesella family and later by the Este family. After a struggle lasting well over a century, this latter family prevailed and established a lordship over the city that was to be one of the longest in Italy. Marquis followed marquis and then duke followed duke. In this long line of successors to the throne, there were many different characters, but all were great lovers of the prestige coming from the patronage of arts and sciences. The court was the hub of an intense cultural life, indeed one of the most intense in Europe, you can refer to the old Will Durant’s The Renaissance. New York: Simon and Schuster(1953).
Its renown attracted artists from all over. There were painters such as Pisanello, Piero della Francesca, Cosmè Tura, Ercole de’ Roberti, Francesco del Cossa, Titian. Men of letters included Petrarch, Guarino Veronese, Ariosto, Tasso. Then there were the great intellectuals of the time, such as Leon Battista Alberti, Biagio Rossetti, Girolamo da Carpi , not to mention famed musicians from across Europe, including Josquin Desprez, Jakob Willaert, Cipriano De Rore, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, and Luzzasco Luzzaschi. Amidst such bountiful intellectual life, the University was founded in 1391.
As in 1597 the last Duke, Alfonso II, died without male heirs, the city considered a Papal fiefdom, was absorbed into the State of the Church.
In the Napoleonic Era was part of various Republic and Kingdoms returning to the Pope, also if desired by the Austrian Empire. When the city was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, it was given provincial-capital status.
There are a lots of monuments both religious as the Cattedrale, the Chiesa del Gesù, the Chiesa di S. Carlo, the Chiesa di S. Cristoforo alla Certosa, the Chiesa di S. Domenico, the Chiesa di S. Francesco, the Chiesa di S. Giorgio, the Chiesa di S. Paolo, the Chiesa di S. Maria in Vado, or of civil use as the Casa di Ludovico Ariosto, Casa Romei, the Castello Estense, Palazzo Bonacossi, Palazzo Costabili said of Ludovico il Moro, the Palazzo dei Diamanti, the Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, Palazzo Massari, Palazzo Municipale, Palazzo Paradiso, and Palazzo Schifanoia, many of the latter are seat of museums and civic offices, but the most important monument is the complex of the WALLS surrounding the city.
For those who arrive in Ferrara from some directions, mainly north east, the Walls constitute the first contact with the city: it is a red curtain of brick that encircles the historic centre almost without interruption for nine kilometres, constituting one of the oldest and most impressive defensive systems of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and make use of all the techniques of defence used in the 1400s and 1500s: city gates, bastions, large towers, gun slots and embrasures. Time has transformed these walls into a place for meeting friends, practicing sport and recreation, with paths for cycling and walking. The Addizione Erculea fortifications are the walls to the north that were built between 1493 and 1505 as part of the Addizione Erculea to the design of the architect Biagio Rossetti. This stretch is marked out by the smaller semicircular towers and by the long “patrol path” used by the entries. At the north-west end of the walls stands the Torrione del Barco, an important example of changing military architecture between the 1400s and 1500s. Distinguishing features include the Porta degli Angeli to the north, through which the melancholy retinue of the last duke Cesare d’Este passed in 1598, and, to the east, the Torrione di S. Giovanni, whose circular structure is typical of renaissance military architecture. Beyond the northern earthwork, at one time flooded, extends the vast Giorgio Bassani Park, a setting of plants, open spaces, stretches of water and paths that join Ferrara to the river Po.
The 16th-century bastions are due to the change of the enemy from Venice to the Holy See: this stretch of walls to the east was conceived by Alfonso I d’Este, between 1512 and 1518. Distinguishing features include the Doccile di San Tommaso, a drain for the city’s water, and the artificial hill of the Baluardo della Montagna, where at the end of Via Marco Polo a 17th century garret for guarding the former Porta di San Giorgio can still be seen. The southern fortifications are characterised by four imposing bastions in the form of the “ace of spades” built on the orders of Alfonso II between 1575 and 1585. Along this stretch, Porta di S. Pietro that connects the city with the Po di Volano has been reopened.
The Papal defences (mainly the fortress) were conceived not to protect the city, but to menace it, at the southern entrance of the walls stands Porta Paola, built in 1612 to the design of Giovan Battista Aleotti after Ferrara was devolved to the Papal States. To day, in the stretch of wall that leads from the gate to the west, there are two bastions and a statue of Pope Paul V who commissioned the 17th-century defensive works. A grandiose pentagonal fortress meant to menace the city and help reinforcements coming from Bologna. It was demolished by the people of the town from the Napoleonic era onwards. This part of the city’s defences, between Porta Paola and Viale Belvedere, has undergone the greatest changes.
In the xx century the one most prominent citizen of the town has been Italo Balbo, after being a Ras (an Ethiopian term equal to duke that meant a boss) he led one column of the fascist Blackshirts in the March on Rome (1922) and served under Benito Mussolini as general of militia (1923) and air minister (1929 – 33). Balbo developed Italian military and commercial aviation and became famous for promoting mass international flights to demonstrate Italy's air power. He was appointed governor of Libya in 1933 and died when his plane was accidentally shot down by Italian guns over Tobruk.
Better person were the artist Bassani, Antonioni and other, but all went to live in other towns.
