Ferrara, a city waiting to be discovered!

The Este government in Ferrara

His brother Borso is remembered for the land reclamation works undertaken in the surrounding territory, for the artistic commission of one of the most beautiful profane pictorial cycles which can still be admired today in Palazzo Schifanoia, for the sumptuous hunting parties, the lavish banquets and for the title of Duke of which he was awarded by Pope Paul II, only shortly before his death. Duke Ercole I promoted theater and chivalric literature and commissioned the imposing and innovative urban project known as the "Addizione Erculea". Alfonso I strengthened the defensive walls of the city while Ercole II ordered the restructuring of the castle after the earthquake of 1570. Unfortunately the magnificence of the Court, the shrewd matrimonial policy and the wars fought in defense of their territories were not enough to make the Duchy survive. In 1598 the glorious Este dominion in Ferrara came to an end when Alfonso II died without leaving direct heirs and Pope Clement VIII reunified the Duchy of Ferrara to the State of the Church (Devolution).

It began the period of pontifical domination during which Ferrara witnessed a slow decline that was recorded not only at the artistic level, but also commercial, agricultural and demographic, with the painful creation of the Jewish ghetto. During the period of Napoleon's domination many religious orders were suppressed and most of the artistic patrimony collected by the Este family left the city never to return. The revolutionary movements led to the expulsion of the papal government and to the annexation of Ferrara to the Unitary State in 1860. At the First World War Ferrara participated with a large number of laborers, with the promise of the acquisition of new arable land at the end of the conflict. The huge losses prevented, however, to keep the promise and this "betrayal" had as a consequence a wide adhesion to Fascism. During the second world conflict the town suffered serious wounds under the aerial bombardments, the forces of the resistance paid a high contribution of blood, the ferraresi Jews were deported in the concentration camps and very few made return.