Abate Tower (Torre Abate)

Torre Abate, built under the reign of Alfonso II d’Este, was originally conceived as one of the most important hydraulic infrastructures for the control and safeguarding of the Great Ferrarese reclamation, i.e. the vast drainage campaign that between 1566 and 1580 radically redesigned the layout of the easternmost sectors of the Duchy. As well as still representing the most emblematic symbol of an exceptional hydraulic project due to the scale of the interventions and the resources deployed, Torre Abate is also one of the few surviving works of architecture of the colossal 12-kilometre enclosure also erected by Alfonso II d’Este a few years after the completion of the extensive remediation operations.

The two-storey building (called a “tower” by analogy with the structures of this kind that interspersed the ancient walled enclosure) that rises above a five-arched bridge known as the “five-eyes” bridge (originally equipped with an apparatus of locks designed to regulate the flow of the reclamation waters towards the sea) is the unexpected result of the combination of hydraulic functions and eminently defensive requirements. It is the product of several construction phases, the first of which coincided with the construction of the five-eye bridge erected between 1568 and 1569 for the reclamation works alone, while at a later stage, perhaps shortly after the construction of Alfonso II’s walls, the original lock was completed by adding the tower building above it.