Ferrara

Ducal Palace of Ferrara (Palazzo Ducale di Ferrara)

Edited by

Maria Teresa Sambin

Houses and Palaces

Other denominations

Palazzo Ducale ora Palazzo Comunale e Piazza Municipale / Palazzo comunale / Palazzo Municipale / Municipio/Chiesa Nuova /Sala Estense/Chiesa Nuova ora Sala Estense/Due colonne con capitelli e trabeazione in marmo

Founders

Azzo VI, Borso, Ercole I, Leonello, Niccolò III

D'Este's People

Eleonora d'Este, Lucrezia d'Este

Artists / Humanists

Antonio di Cristoforo fiorentino, Biagio Rossetti, Domenico di Paris, Gabriele Frisoni da Mantova, Nicolò Baroncelli, Pietro di Benvenuto dagli Ordini

Description

Little remains of the ancient Este palace facing the cathedral and the episcopal palace. Originally the residence of the Adelardi family, from whom the Este family had taken over the leadership of the city from 1189, its Renaissance layout is known to us thanks to archival research by Thomas Tuohy.

The palace was created from the medieval nucleus known as Corte Vecchia (the current Town Hall, whose façade dates back to 1924-28); the residential complex grew over the centuries with the addition of new buildings and subsequent modernisations, as was usually the case in the large urban palaces of the age of the lords. It was Duke Ercole I who paid great attention to the overall reconfiguration, with tireless works that led to the layout of the complex around a large ducal courtyard (now Piazza Municipale) and a secret, i.e. private, garden for the lord, later transformed into the Duchesses’ Garden, a space that still survives, although profoundly altered. The complex was connected to the castle by the Via Coperta, where in 1505 Alfonso I placed the famous alabaster Camerini, with works by the most famous artists of the time, and the stone balcony that can still be seen outside today.

It seems that the designer of the complex was the same Duke Ercole I, a great expert in building art, while to his architect Biagio Rossetti it is owed the loggia (1491-1493) that faced the north wing of the building, of which the portico facing the street and the archway leading under the Cavallo façade remain.

Useful information

Address

piazza Municipale, 2

Municipality

FERRARA

Province

Ferrara

Other addresses

corso Martiri della Libertà / via Cortevecchia / piazza Savonarola / piazza Castello

Visitability of the place

Visits by appointment only

Themes

Laic ceremony (Triumph, ephemeral apparatuses, court transfer,...)

Website

http://www.artecultura.fe.it/index.phtml?id=1617

Tourer

https://www.tourer.it/mappa?id=1006

Included in the itineraries