The origins of the villa lie in landed estates belonging to the Archiepiscopal Curia of Ferrara. The earliest layout, probably dating from the fourteenth century, consisted of a watchtower overlooking the course of the Po di Volano, from which a first small medieval palazzo developed. It was later enlarged on the initiative of Bartolomeo della Rovere, Bishop of Ferrara from 1474 to 1495, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV and brother of his successor Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere.
Although heavily altered in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the building still preserves many fifteenth-century features. La Mensa has a polygonal ground plan and a cloistered courtyard. The west-facing façade is extended by two high walls (topped with battlements) that lead into the service courtyards flanking the villa.
Standing on the left bank of the Po di Volano, it was a monumental complex owned by the episcopal mensa of Ferrara – from which it takes its name – until the time of the Napoleonic suppressions (1797). Even though it did not belong directly to the House of Este, the villa was used by the ducal court as a residence and place of representation, especially in summer, when the waterway offered better navigability. The present eastern wing of the villa, projecting directly towards the Po di Volano, is the oldest part of the palace and houses the chapel of Sant’Agata. The Este bishops also turned it into an agricultural and administrative centre, while under Bartolomeo della Rovere a portico and a large hall were added; finally, in 1513 Biagio Rossetti carried out work there on the commission of Ippolito I d’Este.
After 1598, when Ferrara was ceded to the Holy See, the villa lost its central role. In the nineteenth century it passed to various owners, including the Navarra brothers, who assigned it to the Fondazione per l’Agricoltura (Agriculture Foundation). In the twentieth century it was altered to house an orphanage and dwellings for sharecropper families. It was acquired in 2003 by the Municipality of Copparo and the Province of Ferrara.
