Ferrara

Coordinates: 44°50′N 11°37′E / 44.833°N 11.617°E / 44.833; 11.617
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the city in Italy. For other uses, see Ferrara (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Ferraria or Ferrera.
Ferrara
Fràra (
Emilian)
Comune
Comune di Ferrara
From top left: The Castello Estense
, Via Giuseppe Mazzini, Braghini-Rossetti Palace, San Giorgio di Ferrara Cathedral, aerial view of the city during its balloon festival, statue to Nicolò III d'Este in Palazzo Municipale, statue to Girolamo Savonarola in Piazza Savonarola.
Flag of Ferrara
Flag
Coat of arms of Ferrara
Coat of arms
Location of Ferrara
Map
St. George
Saint dayApril 23
Websitewww.comune.ferrara.it

Ferrara (

Emilian: Fràra [ˈfraːra]) is a city and comune (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. As of 2016, it had 132,009 inhabitants.[3] It is situated 44 kilometres (27 miles) northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km (3 miles) north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the Renaissance, when it hosted the court of the House of Este.[4] For its beauty and cultural importance, it has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site
.

History

See also: Timeline of Ferrara

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Etruscan jewellery is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara.

The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC.

Po river, were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the Valli di Comacchio marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in Antiquity must have played a major role.[6]

There is uncertainty among scholars about the proposed

Byzantine settlements: a cluster of facilities around the Cathedral of St. George, on the right bank of the main branch of the Po, which then ran much closer to the city than today, and a castrum, a fortified complex built on the left bank of the river to defend against the Lombards.[9]

Ferrara appears first in a document of the

Reggio
in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598.

Early modern

Main article: Duchy of Ferrara
Flora, a Roman goddess, by Bartolomeo Veneto has been assumed to represent Lucrezia Borgia.

In 1452

patrons of the arts in late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy. During this time, Ferrara grew into an international cultural centre, renowned for its architecture, music, literature and visual arts.[12]

The architecture of Ferrara greatly benefited from the genius of Biagio Rossetti, who was requested in 1484 by Ercole I to draft a masterplan for the expansion of the town. The resulting "Erculean Addition" is considered one of the most important examples of Renaissance urban planning[13] and contributed to the selection of Ferrara as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta
UNESCO World Heritage Site
CriteriaCultural: ii, iii, iv, v, vi
Reference733
Inscription1995 (19th Session)

In spite of having entered its golden age, Ferrara was severely hit by a

Alfonso I succeeded to the throne in 1505 and married the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. He again fought Venice in the Italian Wars after joining the League of Cambrai. In 1509 he was excommunicated by Pope Julius II, but was able to overcome the Papal and Spanish armies in 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna. These successes were based on Ferrara's artillery, produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time.[14][15]

Upon his death in 1534, Alfonso I was succeeded by his son

Ercole II, whose marriage in 1528 to the second daughter of Louis XII, Renée of France, brought great prestige to the court of Ferrara. Under his reign, the Duchy remained an affluent country and a cultural powerhouse. However, an earthquake struck the town in 1570, causing the economy to collapse, and when Ercole II's son Alfonso II died without heirs in 1597, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the Papal States
.

Late modern and contemporary

Ferrara as it appeared in 1600

Ferrara, a university city second only to Bologna, remained a part of the

birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the bricks were used for new constructions throughout the town.[17]

Downtown Ferrara around 1900

During the last decades of the 1800s and the early 1900s, Ferrara remained a modest trade centre for its large rural hinterland that relied on commercial crops such as

plastics in Italy.[20]
In recent decades, as part of a general trend in Italy and Europe, Ferrara has come to rely more on tertiary and tourism, while the heavy industry, still present in the town, has been largely phased out.

After almost 450 years, another earthquake struck Ferrara in May 2012 causing only limited damage to the historic buildings of the town and no victims.

Geography and climate

The town of Ferrara lies on the southern shores of the

Padan plain, is overwhelmingly flat, situated on average just 9 metres (30 ft) above sea-level.[4] The proximity to the largest Italian river has been a constant concern in the history of Ferrara, that has been affected by recurrent, disastrous floods, the latest occurring as recently as 1951.[21] The Idrovia Ferrarese
links the river Po from Ferrara to the Adriatic at Porto Garibaldi.

The climate of the Po valley is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa) under the Köppen climate classification, a type of climate commonly referred to as "warm temperate" that features mild winters and hot summers, heavy rains in spring and autumn but there is also a lot of rain even in the driest month of January for Ferrara.[22]

Government

See also: List of mayors of Ferrara

The legislative body of the

Italian Constitution (art. 114), the Municipal Statute[23] and several laws, notably the Legislative Decree 267/2000 or Unified Text on Local Administration (Testo Unico degli Enti Locali).[24]

The current division of the seats in the city council, after the 2019 local election, is the following:

Cityscape

Architecture

Este Castle covered in snow

The imposing Este Castle, sited in the very centre of the town, is iconic of Ferrara. A very large manor house featuring four massive bastions and a moat, it was erected in 1385 by architect Bartolino da Novara with the function to protect the town from external threats and to serve as a fortified residence for the Este family.[25] It was extensively renovated in the 15th and 16th centuries.[25]

The Gothic façade of the Cathedral

The

campanile attributed to Leon Battista Alberti[27] was initiated in 1412 but is still incomplete, missing one projected additional storey and a dome, as it can be observed from numerous historical prints and paintings on the subject.[7]

The 15th-century Town Hall

Near the cathedral and the castle also lies the 15th-century city hall, that served as an earlier residence of the Este family, featuring a grandiose marble flight of stairs and two ancient bronze statues of Niccolò III and Borso of Este.[9]

The southern district is the town's oldest, crossed by a myriad of narrow alleys that date back to the

nuns of the Corpus Domini order, much of the original decorations in the inner rooms have been saved. The house features fresco cycles in the "Sala delle Sibille" ("room of sibyls"), an original terracotta fireplace bearing the coat of arms of Giovanni Romei in the adjoining Saletta dei Profeti ("room of the prophets"), depicting allegories from the Bible, and in other rooms, some of which were commissioned by cardinal Ippolito d'Este, paintings by the school of Camillo and Cesare Filippi (16th century).[9]

Palazzo dei Diamanti, seat of the National Gallery

Orlando furioso and letters by Tasso as well as Ludovico Ariosto's grave. Its famous alumni include Nicolaus Copernicus and Paracelsus
.

The northern quarter, which was added by Ercole I in 1492–1505 thanks to the master plan of

School of Ferrara include Lorenzo Costa and Dosso Dossi, the most eminent of all,[4] Girolamo da Carpi and Benvenuto Tisi (il Garofalo).[9] The district is also home to University of Ferrara Botanic Garden
.

Parks and gardens

A section of the Renaissance walls

The town is still almost totally encircled by 9 kilometres (6 miles) of ancient brick walls, mostly built between 1492 and 1520.[9] Today the walls, after a careful restoration, make up a large urban park around the town and are a popular destination for joggers and cyclists.

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±%
186164,204—    
187167,306+4.8%
188170,442+4.7%
190181,301+15.4%
191195,721+17.7%
1921106,768+11.5%
1931115,628+8.3%
1936119,265+3.1%
1951133,949+12.3%
1961152,654+14.0%
1971154,066+0.9%
1981149,453−3.0%
1991138,015−7.7%
2001130,992−5.1%
2011132,545+1.2%
2021129,872−2.0%
Source:
ISTAT

In 2007, there were 135,369 people residing in Ferrara, of whom 46.8% were male and 53.2% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 12.28% of the population compared to pensioners who number 26.41%. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06% (minors) and 19.94% (pensioners). The average age of Ferrara residents is 49, compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Ferrara grew by 2.28%, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85%.[29]

The current birth rate of Ferrara is 7.02 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. Ferrara is known as the oldest Italian city with a population over 100,000, as well the city with lowest birth rate.

As of 2006[update], 95.59% of the population was

Jewish
community is still surviving.

Culture

Jewish community

The town's Synagogue, established in 1485[30]
Graves in the Jewish cemetery

The Jewish community of Ferrara is the only one in Emilia Romagna with a continuous presence from the Middle Ages to the present day. It played an important role when Ferrara enjoyed its greatest splendor in the 15th and 16th century, with the duke

Italian unification
in 1859.

In 1799, the Jewish community saved the city from sacking by troops of the

Republic of France, which established a small garrison there. On 15 April, Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann von Klenau approached the fortress with a modest mixed force of Austrian cavalry, artillery and infantry augmented by Italian peasant rebels, commanded by Count Antonio Bardaniand and demanded its capitulation. The commander refused. Klenau blockaded the city, leaving a small group of artillery and troops to continue the siege.[31] For the next three days, Klenau patrolled the countryside, capturing the surrounding strategic points of Lagoscuro, Borgoforte and the Mirandola fortress. The besieged garrison made several sorties from the Saint Paul's Gate, which were repulsed by the insurgent peasants. The French attempted two rescues of the beleaguered fortress: the first, on 24 April, when a force of 400 Modenese was repulsed at Mirandola and the second, General Montrichard tried to raise the city-blockade by advancing with a force of 4,000. Finally, at the end of the month, a column led by Pierre-Augustin Hulin reached and relieved the fortress.[32]

Klenau took possession of the town on 21 May, and garrisoned it with a light battalion. The Jewish residents of Ferrara paid 30,000 ducats to prevent the pillage of the city by Klenau's forces; this was used to pay the wages of Gardani's troops.[33] Although Klenau held the town, the French still possessed the town's fortress. After making the standard request for surrender at 08:00, which was refused, Klenau ordered a barrage from his mortars and howitzers. After two magazines caught fire, the commandant was summoned again to surrender; there was some delay, but a flag of truce was sent at 21:00, and the capitulation was concluded at 01:00 the next day. Upon taking possession of the fortress, Klenau found 75 new artillery pieces, plus ammunition and six months worth of provisions.[34]

In 1938, Mussolini's fascist government instituted racial laws reintroducing segregation of Jews which lasted until the end of the German occupation. During the Second World War, 96 of Ferrara's 300 Jews were deported to German concentration and death camps; five survived. The Italian Jewish writer,

Vittorio de Sica
in 1970.

During WWII, the Este Castle, adjacent to the Corso Roma, now known as the Corso Martiri della Libertà, was the site of an infamous massacre in 1943.

On December 13, 2017, the first day of

Fascist period. This is the initial phase of a project—known as MEIS, after its initials in Italian—to be completed in 2021, with additional buildings that will create a major Jewish cultural hub and add exhibits focusing on the Jews in the Italian Renaissance and the Shoah.[35][36]

Visual art

Francesco del Cossa's "May" from the "Salone dei Mesi" ("Great hall of the months") in Palazzo Schifanoia, circa 1470

During the Renaissance the Este family, well known for its patronage of the arts, welcomed a great number of artists, especially painters, that formed the so-called

Filippo de Pisis and Giorgio de Chirico. A large collection of paintings is displayed in the National Gallery of Palazzo dei Diamanti
.

Literature

Title page of John Harington's translation of Orlando Furioso, 1634

The Renaissance literary men and poets Torquato Tasso (author of Jerusalem Delivered), Ludovico Ariosto (author of the romantic epic poem Orlando Furioso) and Matteo Maria Boiardo (author of the grandiose poem of chivalry and romance Orlando Innamorato) lived and worked at the court of Ferrara during the 15th and 16th century.

The

Jew Duarte Pinhel, as translator), and was dedicated to Ercole II d'Este. In the 20th century, Ferrara was the home and workplace of writer Giorgio Bassani, well known for his novels that were often adapted for cinema (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Long Night in 1943). In historical fiction, British author Sarah Dunant
set her 2009 novel Sacred Hearts in a convent in Ferrara.

Religion

A page from Borso d'Este Bible

Ferrara gave birth to Girolamo Savonarola, the famous medieval Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance. He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time, and his main opponent was Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia).

During the time that Renée of France was Duchess of Ferrara, her court attracted Protestant thinkers such as John Calvin and Olympia Fulvia Morata.[37] The court became hostile to Protestant sympathizers after the marriage of Renée's daughter Anna d'Este to the fervently Catholic Duke of Guise.

Music

The Ferrarese musician Girolamo Frescobaldi was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. His masterpiece Fiori musicali (Musical Flowers) is a collection of liturgical organ music first published in 1635. It became the most famous of Frescobaldi's works and was studied centuries after his death by numerous composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach.[38][39] Maurizio Moro (15??–16??) an Italian poet of the 16th century best known for madrigals is thought to have been born in Ferrara.

Cinema

Ferrara is the birthplace of Italian

Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
, were also shot in Ferrara.

In the third season of

Medici (TV Series), Girolamo Riario's men seize Ferrara, 100 miles from Florence and takes their salt. Based on the actions by Riario, Pope Sixtus IV condemns Riario and accepts Lorenzo's invitation to a peace conference in Bagnolo.[citation needed] The attack by Riario’s men on Ferrara was filmed at Castle of Oliveto in Castelfiorentino, once the residence of the noble Pucci family of Florence.[40]

Festivals

A child dressed up for the Palio

The

Buskers Festival is a non-competitive parade of street musicians from all over the world. At the 2017 edition, more than 1,000 artists from 35 different nations took part in the festival, including dancers, clowns, equilibrists, jugglers and other original performers.[43] Additionally, the town hosts the yearly Ferrara Balloons Festival, a large hot-air balloon show.[44]

Sport

The town's football team,

SPAL, was established in 1907. In 2017 it was promoted to Serie A, Italy's top-level football league, after a 49-year absence. Its home ground is Paolo Mazza Memorial Stadium, with a capacity of 16,134.[45]

Ferrara's basketball team

Serie A2 Basket and plays its home games at the Palasport di Ferrara
.

Cuisine

Some food items easily found in Ferrara: "coppia" bread,[46] "zia" garlic salami[47] and muskmelon[48]

The culinary tradition of Ferrara features many typical dishes that can be traced back to the Middle Ages, and that sometimes reveals the influence of its important Jewish community.

The signature dish is cappellacci di zucca, special ravioli with a filling of butternut squash, Parmesan and flavored with nutmeg. It is served with a sauce of butter and sage or bolognese sauce. Another peculiar dish, that was allegedly cooked by Renaissance chef Cristoforo di Messisbugo, is pasticcio di maccheroni, a domed macaroni pie, consisting of a crust of sweet dough enclosing macaroni in a Béchamel sauce, studded with porcini mushrooms and ragù alla bolognese.

The traditional Christmas first course is cappelletti, large meat filled ravioli served in chicken broth. It is often followed by salama da sugo, a very big, cured sausage made from a selection of pork meats and spices kneaded with red wine.

Seafood is also an important part of the local tradition, that boast rich fisheries in the Po delta lagoons and Adriatic sea. Pasta with clams and grilled or stewed eel dishes are especially well-known. Popular food items include also zia garlic salami and the traditional coppia bread, protected by the IGP (protected geographical status) label.[49] Not unusual is the typical kosher salami made of goose meat stuffed in goose neck skin.

Local patisserie include spicy pampepato chocolate pie, tenerina, a dark chocolate and butter cake, and zuppa inglese, a chocolate and custard pudding on a bed of sponge cake soaked in Alchermes. The clay terroir of the area, an alluvial plain created by the river Po, is not ideal for wine; a notable exception is Bosco Eliceo (DOC) wine, made from grapes cultivated on the sandy coast line.[50]

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Italy

Ferrara is twinned with:[51]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Popolazione Residente al 1° Gennaio 2018". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Popolazione 2016" (in Italian). Municipality of Ferrara. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ferrara". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 283.
  5. ISBN 0719057396
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0415673082
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 9781274747815
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0313307331
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 9788836534401
    .
  10. Encyclopedia Britannica
    . Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  11. ISBN 978-0521522632
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0521792486
    .
  13. ISBN 978-8772890500
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0226554037
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0582057586
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0582491465
    .
  17. ISBN 978-9044110920
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0230360334
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0198287735
    .
  20. ISBN 978-88-95014-00-5
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0792323556
    .
  22. ISBN 978-0521408486
    .
  23. ^ "The Municipal Statute of Ferrara (in Italian)". Municipality of Ferrara. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  24. ^ "Local self-government authority system under the Italian legislation". Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-9004243613
    .
  26. ISBN 978-0824047894
    .
  27. ISBN 978-0415267090
    .
  28. ^ Varese, Ranieri (1972). "BRASAVOLA, Pietrobono". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 14. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  29. ^ "Statistiche demografiche ISTAT". Demo.istat.it. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  30. ISBN 978-0262610483
    .
  31. ^ Colonel Danilo Oreskovich and 1,300 Croatians of the 2nd Banat battalion, 4,000 Ferrarese auxiliary troops commanded by Count Antonio Gardani, and several hundred local peasants commanded by Major Angelo Pietro Poli. Acerbi. The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April – June 1799.
  32. ^ Acerbi, The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April – June 1799.
  33. ^ Accerbi reports that wages were the equivalent of a daily intake of 21 "Baiocchi" in cash and four in bread. Acerbi, The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April – June 1799.
  34. ^ Acerbi, The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April – June 1799; Klenau's force included a battalion of light infantry, a couple battalions of border infantry, a squadron of the Nauendorf Hussars (8th Hussars), and approximately 4,000 armed peasants. For details on Austrian force, see Smith, Ferrara, Data Book, p. 156. Klenau's force also captured 75 guns from the fortress.
  35. ^ "Once It Imprisoned Jews, Now It's a Museum of Their History in Italy". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  36. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  37. ^ Robin, Diana Maury; Larsen, Anne R; Levin, Carole (2007). Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO, Inc. p. 269.
  38. ISBN 0-19-816576-5
    .
  39. ISBN 0-521-58780-8
  40. ^ Redazione (November 23, 2019). "Medici 3: ten locations where the series about Lorenzo the Magnificent was filmed". Finestre sull Arte. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  41. ^ "PALIO DI FERRARA". Emiliaromagnaturismo.com. Official tourist information site of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  42. ^ Clare, Horatio (28 March 2014). "The Palio of Ferrara". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  43. ^ "FERRARA BUSKERS FESTIVAL". Emiliaromagnaturismo.com. Official tourist information site of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  44. ^ "Ferrara Balloons Festival 2017". www.ferrarainfo.com. "Ferrara Terra e Acqua", the official website for Ferrara and its province. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  45. ^ "SPAL RECEIVES BOOST TO FURTHER EXPAND STADIUM". TheStadiumBusiness. 20 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  46. ^ "Ferrara's bread – IGP". Ferrara Terra e Acqua. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  47. ^ "The Zia ferrarese Salami". Ferrara Terra e Acqua. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  48. ^ "Typical Melon from Emilia". Ferrara Terra e Acqua. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  49. ISBN 978-1-11879-193-6
    . Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  50. ^ "Bosco Eliceo DOC". Enoteca Regionale Emilia-Romagna. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  51. ^ "Gemellaggi e patti d'amicizia" (in Italian). Ferrara. Retrieved 2022-03-21.

References

Further reading

See also: Bibliography of the history of Ferrara

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ferrara.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Ferrara.
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