Paradise Palace (Palazzo Paradiso)

Palazzo Paradiso seems to have been built in 1388, on the occasion of the wedding of Alberto V d’Este, who in that year succeeded his brother Nicolò II, to Giovanna Roberti da Reggio. The building was to become the residence of the bride’s father, who kept it until 1400, when it was returned to the Este estate. Between the 14th and 15th centuries it was embellished with numerous frescoes, among which a precious cycle of Ercole survives. The building was enlarged and embellished by Borso d’Este.

Today the building is laid out around a quadrangular courtyard, composed of buildings from different periods. The first body of the building was the one on Via Giuoco del Pallone, where the original entrance was located. Towards the courtyard, it featured a loggia, now filled in, with round arches with stone columns with diamond-cut collars and late Gothic capitals with stylised angular volutes. In 1567, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este rented the architectural complex to the Maestrato dei Savi as the sole lodgings for the university faculties, which had until then been located in various places; for this purpose, substantial transformations were carried out, to a design by Alessandro Balbi and Giovan Battista Aleotti, constructing the building on Via delle Scienze, where the current entrance is located, characterised by the central roof terrace, portal and rusticated corners.