Ferrara and Province
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Up until the XII century, Ferrara was merely an urban
agglomeration, without a center or clearly defined features,
intersected by a network of canals, bridges and ferries.
There were reasonable grounds to suppose that Ferrara would
develop along the lines of Venice, that is to say
spontaneously and without any particular town-planning
strategy. Precisely at that moment in time, the construction
of the new Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1135, with
its large square, subsequently to be surrounded by the most
important public buildings, began to change the appearance
of the city, moving it further north to a site where, even
today, the hearth of the religious, political, economic and
social life of Ferrara can be found. One century later the
political order was also radically transformed. After one
hundred years of internal confliet between Guelfi and
Ghibellini, the powerful Estense family won control of the
city on behalf of the papacy.
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 It
was in the year 1264 that the magnificent epoch of domination by
the Estense family was initiated, during which the Court of
Ferrara became one of the most important in all of Europe. The
extraordinary Renaissance cycle of frescoes kept in the
Schifanoia Palace - the work of Francesco del Cossa and Ercole
de' Roberti, founders, together with Cosmé Tura, of the
pietorial school of Ferrara - is by far the most complete
description of the daily life of that particularly sumptuous
court. The protagonist is the Duke of that period, Borso d'Este,
shown whilst in the act of governing, at play, or entertaining
with his subjects. Pictured beside bim are court dignitaries,
noble ladies, University professors, poets and musicians who,
together with the great painters and architects from Ferrara and
elsewhere, helped to make famous the artistic life at the
Estense court. Out of the many artists who worked in Ferrara, it
is worth recalling such famous names as Leon Battista Alberti,
Tiziano, Dosso Dossi, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso and
Girolamo Frescobaldi. Along with pagan divinities we may also
note astrological symbols, allegorical images, young lovers,
monks, priests, farmers in the fields and spectators at the San
Giorgio "Palio" - the oldest of its sort in the world - which is
still held every -year in late spring in Ferrara. The Estense
family did not delay in changing the face of the city,
transforming it into a "unicum" in the rich encyclopaedia of
town planning and medieval and Renaissance architecture. The
renowned historian Jakob Burckardt defined Ferrara as the "first
modern city in Europe.
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 The
first actions modified and re-qualified the body of the medieval
city, and were the effects of the application of an altogether
new and, even today, modern strategy of town planning: the
so-called "addizione", i.e. the expansion of the city by means
of programmed urbanization of extensive uninhabited surrounding
areas. This project was carried out throughout the entire area
and, at the northern-most Confine, Bartolino da Novara began the
construction of the Estense Castle - a magnificent example of
military architecture. This castle became the new and safer
residente of the Dukes and witnessed both the splendour of the
court life and the unfolding of its famed tragedies: that of Ugo
d'Este and Parisina Malatesta, respectively son and young wife
of Nicolò III d'Este, beheaded because of their adulterous
relationship; Giulio d'Este, blinded and later imprisoned with
prince Ferrante after having been found guilty of conspiring
against their brother, Duke Alfonso I d'Este. An ulterior "addizione'
was created in 1451, in the heart of the medieval city, where
the ancient bed of the river Po was filled with carth and the
island of Sant'Antonio and surrounding area were joined to the
city. Sant'Antonio was the bome of a Benedictine monastery of
the same name, founded half way through the XII century, which
is still famous for its magical and absorbing spiritual
atmosphere, as well as the precious works of art that are housed
there.
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 The
last great accomplishment, characterized by its unprecedented
dimensions and the quality of town planning design, took place
around 1490 when Duke Ercole I d'Este assigned Biagio Rossetti
with the task of urbanizing an enormous territory to the north
of Ferrara, thereby doubling the size of the city and enclosing
it within stalwart walls, which delimited an arca that was so
big that it managed, until recent years, to contain the full
range of expansion of the entire modern city.
As a result of the incredible speed at which the works proceeded,
within ten years Ferrara assumed the dimensions and aspect of an
important European city. The presence of canals, bridges and
ferries became a memory of the distant past, and were replaced
by long, broad, straight streets, intersecting according to a
precise geometric plan, but blending perfectly with the
meandering streets in the medieval zones, thereby uniting the
"old" city with the "new".
From the fascinating mystery of the narrow, twisting, shadowed
and irregular alleys of the medieval districts, we find
ourselves suddenly entering the vast and airy spaces and
rational and resplendent atmosphere of the Renaissance city;
spaces that are so real and lived-in, but at the same time so "intellectual",
that it comes as no surprise that they helped to create and
inspire the "metaphysical painting" of De Chirico, Savinio, and
Carrà.
Paradoxically, at the moment when Ferrara reached the size of a
great capital, the slow decline of the Estense family began,
concluding in 1598 when Cesare d'Este, the last Duke, was forced
to sorrowfully leave the city whilst, contemporaneously - as a
chronicler recounted - Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, nephew of
Pope Clement VIII, triumphantly entered the city to take direct
possession on behalf of the Papal States.
From that time on Ferrara was no longer its own ruler: it
belonged to the Church States until the plebiscite on March 18th
1860, when it became a part of the Kingdom of Italy, apart from
a brief period between 1796 and 1815 when, in rapid succession,
it was occupied by the French troops and was made part of the
Cisalpine Republic, the Cispadane Republic, and, finally, the
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. These long centurics were not
without episodes of important history, art and culture, recorded
by illustriuos artists from Ferrara, such as Guercino, Giovanni
Boldini, and Filippo de Pisis and, in the 1900's, by the writer
Giorgio Bassani and the film director Michelangelo Antonioni.
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 However,
these centuries cannot be compared with the splendor of the
Renaissance era, when the design and architecture of the city
was tran- sformed and adorned with splendid palaces, churches,
squares, streets, gardens and works of art that, even today,
make Ferrara the most attractive of cities.
Palaces, churches, squares, strects, gardens and works of art
which are magically reborn, especially since the rediscovery of
its history, the restoration and evaluation of its artistic and
natural heritage, the recovery of its cultural, artisan and
gastronomic traditions, Ferrara has once more become an
essential place to visit on a trip to Italy.
As was the case in the epoch of the "Grand Tour', the journey
should no longer be limited to the sights of Venice, Florence
and Rome but, whilst following that route, or even abandoning it,
cities such as this must be visited, rediscovering an infinite
display of artistic and naturalistic jewels, enelosed within a
treasure chest of extraordinary beauty - the Italian peninsular. |
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