Ferrara, between history and monumental heritage of outstanding value (criteria II and IV)
by Francesco Scafuri
The history of Ferrara, rich in famous figures and major town-planning achievements, is inextricably linked to the Este lordship and, in particular, to the splendour of the Court in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to such an extent that in 1995 the city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an exceptional example of a Renaissance city.
Although the city’s earliest core was a Byzantine military settlement, the Castrum (7th century), located to the south-east of the present urban area, it was in the Middle Ages that some of its most distinctive streets took shape, such as Via delle Volte and Via San Romano, together with the main square (now Piazza Trento e Trieste). Along one side of this square stands the Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral (1135), a true masterpiece of architecture and sculpture and a treasure-chest of works of art from different periods. It was in the twelfth century that the Este family established itself in Ferrara; in 1264, with Obizzo II, they became lords of the city in the legal sense.
A remarkable period, rich in events, then began for Ferrara. With the foundation of the University (1391), where Nicolaus Copernicus graduated in canon law, the construction of the Estense Castle (1385) and other fine architectural complexes, built both in the medieval and the Renaissance parts of the centre, the city became in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries one of the most important capitals of the Renaissance, above all thanks to the cultural milieu that flourished at Court. The marquises, later dukes, of Este summoned and welcomed to Ferrara figures of extraordinary stature such as Leon Battista Alberti and even the great Michelangelo; here the great epic poems of Boiardo, Torquato Tasso and Ariosto were composed, while Ferrarese painting reached one of its highest figurative expressions in the fifteenth-century frescoes of the Hall of the Months in Palazzo Schifanoia, one of the most evocative places of Este magnificence.
To all this must be added the fact that from 1492 Ferrara also endowed itself with what was, in effect, a pioneering town-planning scheme, the Addizione Erculea, which envisaged the doubling of the medieval city – until then developed to the south of the Castle – through the construction of broad, straight streets, churches and convents, splendid palaces and fortifications. The “Terranova”, as this new district was called at the time, still seems wrapped in a highly evocative atmosphere, the same that the writer Giorgio Bassani captured so masterfully in his works: one can sense it, for example, on the embankments and Este fortifications, or in streets such as Corso Ercole I d’Este, one of the most beautiful avenues in the world, ennobled by superbly designed Renaissance buildings, foremost among which is Palazzo dei Diamanti (1493), now home to the National Picture Gallery and the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, where prestigious exhibitions are held. The extraordinary expansion commissioned by Duke Ercole I d’Este and carried out by his court architect Biagio Rossetti is considered one of the most important town-planning projects of the Renaissance; the image the city assumed after this great undertaking led the historian Jacob Burckhardt to describe Ferrara as “the first modern city in Europe”.
Alongside the buildings already mentioned, the medieval and Renaissance city of Ferrara has handed down to us many other fine complexes, rich in works of art and absolutely not to be missed: the Cathedral Museum in the former monastery of San Romano, Casa Romei, the small palace of Marfisa d’Este (1559), the Riminaldi Museum in Palazzo Bonacossi, the Ducal Palace (now the Town Hall, once the Este residence) and the National Archaeological Museum in the so-called Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro (1500–1504), not to mention the monasteries and, above all, the many churches of different periods, rich in works of art, where time seems to have stood still.
Today the historic centre is still particularly pleasant to live in, not only because it has been enhanced and upgraded in order to preserve its distinctive character, but also because it is almost entirely enclosed by imposing walls and tree-lined areas extending for over nine kilometres, with cycle paths that follow highly atmospheric routes. On the other hand, this ancient defensive system is one of the most complete and varied surviving circuits in Italy, since it encompasses the most significant periods in Italian military architecture in the history of fortification. Set amid the greenery of the ramparts and moat, the fifteenth-century towers to the north, the sixteenth-century bastions to the east and south, and the two bastions of the seventeenth-century Papal fortress form a splendid ecological belt around the city’s almost metaphysical historic centre. In addition, the raised embankment system of the walls now forms a vast park that links both the green areas within the city and the Giorgio Bassani urban park immediately to the north, with its wealth of paths and routes through the greenery.
Legacy of the Renaissance culture promoted by the Este family (criterion VI)
by Romeo Pio Cristofori
In addition to the transformations imprinted on the city of Ferrara and on the landscape of the Delta, the Este Court played an important role in giving rise to a veritable “Ferrarese Renaissance civilisation”, fostering a flourishing circulation of artists, writers and technical experts who left many tangible traces within the Site.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century the court of Ferrara was still tied to a late Gothic taste. Its humanist flowering was due to Leonello d’Este, lord of the city from 1441 to 1450, who made Ferrara one of the most fertile centres of the Italian Renaissance by inviting artists and men of letters and giving fresh impetus to the University. Artists such as Andrea Mantegna (around 1449) and Leon Battista Alberti came to the city; the latter in all probability designed the bell tower of Ferrara Cathedral, while Piero della Francesca produced, between 1448 and 1450, several now-lost fresco cycles. In this rich cultural climate the so-called “Ferrarese school” developed, whose best-known exponents are Cosmè Tura and Francesco del Cossa, some of whose works can still be seen in the city today. The Humanism promoted by the Este found expression in every artistic field – not only the visual arts and architecture, but also literature and music – and likewise gave a powerful impulse to the development of important technical and scientific disciplines. Among the most representative works of art from the Este period are the fresco cycle of the Hall of the Months in Palazzo Schifanoia, the painted ceilings of the Estense Castle and the frescoes of the Sibyls’ Hall in Casa Romei.
The immense task of reclaiming the marshy areas of the Delta was preceded by an important phase of investigation of the territory, based on an extensive programme of cartographic surveying. Likewise, the regulation of the waters drew on the most advanced contemporary knowledge of hydraulic engineering, just as the continuous work to improve the city’s circuit of walls was informed by the military engineering theories of the time.The Renaissance in Ferrara has therefore left an important cultural legacy, which is also evidenced by the heritage preserved in libraries, archives and documentation centres that hold archival and bibliographical sources and contribute to the enhancement and dissemination of this remarkable heritage. Examples of the rich bibliographical patrimony and of the extraordinary tradition of Ferrarese illumination include the illuminated manuscripts of the Charterhouse of San Cristoforo, now preserved in the Schifanoia Museum, and the cycle of twenty-four corali atlantici (large choir books) of the Cathedral Chapter, which can now be seen in the Cathedral Museum.
