Palace of Renata of France (Palazzo di Renata di Francia)

The Palazzo di San Francesco, also known as the Palazzo di Renata di Francia or Gavassini, or alternatively Pareschi, from the name of the owners who resided there over the centuries, now home to the University of Ferrara, is a building centred on a large square courtyard, flanked by an irregular minor courtyard and opening at the rear onto a large garden (now Pareschi Park). Expansion and reconstruction works on a house that had just been purchased by the duke are documented from 1474. From 1485, the presence on the building site of the ducal architect Biagio Rossetti is attested. Conspicuous interventions have taken place over the centuries, including the building and decorative campaign commissioned by Ippolito II d’Este (1534-35) and the radical 18th-century restructuring (around 1736-1766).

Although the overall layout is still the Renaissance one, the result of the successive addition of various buildings, the original facies is now barely perceptible, due to works in the 18th century. These involved a new configuration of the façade, which had originally been crenellated and punctuated by mullioned windows, the construction of the grand staircase and the demolition of the wall that separated the loggia of the main courtyard from that of the garden, creating a transparent colonnaded passage. All that is still recognisable from the 15th century are a few capitals on the courtyard and the left portal of the façade, which, although deprived of the large heraldic shield that crowned it, retains the original fluted, rudentate pillars, the cornucopia friezes and the archivolt decorated with zoomorphic grotesques.