About Ferrara
Ferrara was founded in the early Middle Ages and grew up around a ford over the River Po. In the 15th and 16th centuries, under the Dukes of Este, it became an important intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance, such as Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini, Andrea Mantegna, and Rogier van der Weyden. The group of local painters, known as the “Scuola Ferrarese”, included Francesco del Cossa, Cosmé Tura and Ercole de’ Roberti.
The humanist concept of the “ideal city” was implemented in the “Addizione Erculea”, a new section of the city built from 1492 onwards by architect Biagio Rossetti, on the orders of duke Ercole I d’Este, according to the new principles of perspective. The completion of this project marked the birth of modern town planning and influenced its subsequent development.
Ferrara is now a city of ca 130.000 people, with an intense cultural life, in an active industrial and agricultural environment. Its special character, however, lies in the remarkable degree to which the city center has been preserved along the centuries. The city is still completely encircled by defensive walls. It shows a clear texture where the medieval section, with its tortuous and narrow streets, can be easily distinguished from the renaissance addition, with its rational and spacious avenues and squares.
Many monuments from different historical periods, such as the Castle, the Cathedral, residential buildings such as Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia, host important art museums. On recognition of its intact urban landscape, Ferrara has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage as a shining example of Renaissance City.