Palazzo Municipale di Ferrara

Before the castle, this was where the Este lived. Ferrara's Town Hall began in the thirteenth century as the family's palace, facing the cathedral across the square where Renaissance theatre was born. Today the building remains the seat of municipal government, with historic rooms that preserve its courtly and civic past.

Why it matters

Known as the Palazzo Ducale until 1598, the palace was the oldest seat of Este power in Ferrara. The family, lords of the city from 1264, built here from the mid-thirteenth century. Nicolò II enlarged the complex in the late fourteenth century, and Ercole I gave it its definitive form between 1479 and 1481. Its main courtyard, now Piazza Municipale, and the Giardino delle Duchesse behind it shaped the palace's relationship with the cathedral and surrounding city. When the Este court moved to the nearby castle and later left Ferrara for Modena, the palace became the municipal seat.

What to notice

The Volto del Cavallo, an arched passage towards the cathedral, is marked by equestrian Nicolò III and Borso d'Este seated on a faldistorio. The bronze figures are 1927 copies by Giacomo Zilocchi; the originals were destroyed in 1796 during the French occupation. The column and arch are attributed to Leon Battista Alberti. The cathedral-facing façade, reconstructed in the 1920s, is crowned by the Torre della Vittoria, which holds Arrigo Minerbi's gilded bronze Vittoria del Piave.

In the courtyard, Pietro Benvenuto degli Ordini's monumental staircase leads to the piano nobile and the former Cappella di Corte, built by Ercole I for Eleonora d'Aragona. The Camerino delle Duchesse was decorated between 1555 and 1560, largely by Sebastiano Filippi, known as Bastianino. The Sala dell'Arengo contains frescoes by Achille Funi and Felicita Frai, painted between 1934 and 1938.

Context and history

In 1486, Plautus's Menaechmi was performed in Italian in the courtyard, with the young Ludovico Ariosto among the audience. In 1531, Ariosto established a theatre in the palace's great hall; it burned down the following year. The 1920s restoration of the cathedral-facing façade formed part of a wider effort to recover Ferrara's Este-era appearance. The replacement equestrian figures and historic fabric make the square a record of successive layers rather than a single period.