Category: Italy

After out time in Siena, we travelled by train to the town of Ferrara in the province of Emilia-Romagna where we spend the next 4 days.

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Overgrown Gate, Via Darsena, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Mazzanto e C, Via Bologna, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Scultura di Mario Piva, Junction of Via Bologna & Via John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The Porta Paola, Via Donatori di Sangue, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Built in 1612, Porta Paola is the largest monumental arch and passageway in the city today, greatly enhanced by its imminent new use as a Documentation Centre for the City Walls.

Wall, Via Donatori di Sangue, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Fondaco del Mercanti Medioevali, Via Delle Volte, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Fondaco del Mercanti Medioevali – Medieval Merchants’ Warehouse

Is It Art, 62 Corso Porta Reno, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Arched Passageway, Piazetta Alberto Schiatti, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Torre dellÓrologio & Porto Reno, Corso Porta Reno, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagno, Italy

Via del Podestà, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Cattedrale di Ferrara di San Giorgio Martire, Piazza della Cattedrale, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The cathedral was begun in 1135 and dedicated to St. George. The main altar was consecrated on 8 May 1177, and this confirms that 42 years after the laying of the first stone the eastern part was almost complete.

Torre dell’Orologio, Piazza Trento-Trieste, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The Clock Tower was built in the second half of the 16th century, when the Bell of Reason was placed. In 1603 a structural restoration of the Tower was necessary and the task was given to the architect Gian Battista Aleotti. In 1864 the Clock with the luminous dial was added.  The Clock Tower is also called Torre Aleotti.

Torre della Vittoria, Piazza della Cattedrale, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

As part of the action aimed at recovering and enhancing the city’s building heritage, begun in the early 1920s, in Ferrara, which began with the restoration of two public buildings that are emblems of the city, namely the Castello Estense and the Palazzo Municipale, radical work was carried out on the latter’s façade, the one facing the Duomo. In particular, a new Tower of Victory was erected to replace the original one, designed by Rigobello, which had collapsed during the seventeenth century, in 1570, at the beginning of the seismic swarm that struck the city until 1574.

Built on a 14th-century model, in Gothic style and with materials reminiscent of the Este Castle, it is 57 m high and the top is crenellated, like the reconstructed façade of the Town Hall.

Stone Lion, Cattedrale di Ferrara, Piazza della Cattedrale, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Equestrian Statue of Nicolo lll, Corso Porto Rena, Piazza della Cattedrale, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Girolamo Savonarola, Piazza Savonarola, Corso Martiri della Libertà, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Plaque Reads:-

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA IN CORRUPT AND SERVILE TIMES OF VICES AND TYRANTS FLAGELLATORE

Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) was born into a noble family in Ferrara, his father being a doctor. Girolamo was educated by another relative who was also a doctor and a man of rigid religious principles. So it was inevitable that the young lad would be directed towards medicine at university and devout Christianity at home.

Already repelled by the corruption that he saw around him, Savonarola left his medical studies and withdrew into solitude, meditation and prayer. He told his father that he could not suffer the blind wickedness of the peoples of Italy. He found unbearable the humanistic paganism that corrupted art, poetry and religion itself. But even if that was so, how did young Savonarola know that the cause of this spreading corruption was a vicious clergy, even in the highest levels of the church hierarchy?

In 1475 as an adult he chose to enter a Dominican monastery at Bologna. After living quietly there for 6 years, Savonarola moved to the convent of S Marco in Florence and began preaching in the church of S Lorenzo. His style, too medieval and scholastic, failed to attract the crowds. But in 1486, while preaching in Lombardy, he began to speak directly and passionately of the wrath of God. His popularity as a preacher grew immensely.

Savonarola’s fame spread to Florence as he prophesied the doom of all tyrants who then prevailed in the world. In 1490, through the influence of Pico della Mirandola, he moved back to Florence and in July 1491 became prior of S Marco. His target evils in beautiful Florence were the vanity of the humanists and the viciousness of the clergy. Needless to say Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence, was not happy with the fanatical preacher. But Savonarola would not desist, and in April 1492 Savonarola made his move – he refused to grant Lorenzo absolution because the ruler would not give liberty to the Florentines.

Cobble Stones, Piazzetta del Castello, Castello Estense, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Colubrina detta _La Regina, Piazzatta del Castello, Castello Estense, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

“The Queen” is a faithful, life-size copy of the ancient culverin, weighing over seven tons, made in 1556 by Annibale Borgognoni for the lord of Ferrara, Duke Ercole II d’Este, exhibited in the Piazza Castello in Ferrara.

Castello Estense di Ferrara, Piazzatta del Castello, Castello Estense, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The Estense Castle was built in 1385, as a fortress for political and territorial military control and for the defense of the Este family, therefore also thought of as a repressive tool against possible revolts. The first stone was laid symbolically on September 29, the day of St. Michael, warrior archangel at the head of the celestial militias.

See history at Wikipedia:

Enclosed Window, Castello Estense, Piazzetta del Castello, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Moat, Castello Estense di Ferrara, Piazzatta del Castello, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Entrance Gates, Castello Estense di Ferrara, Piazzatta del Castello, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Torch Holder in Entrance, Castello Estense di Ferrara, Piazzatta del Castello, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Units of Measurement Plaque, Estense Castle, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagno, Italy

After what was at the time the drawbridge and before entering the inner courtyard of the castle, on the left there is a bas-relief with 4 horizontal iron lines.

Each of those strips represented a unit of measurement used in the city. At the time there were no portable meters, much less laser measurements, so the citizens, to measure something, could go inside the castle and were sure not to be wrong even a centimetre.

The measurements referred to the feet and arms, and these words on the slab are still visible.

Memorial Plaque, Piazza Savonarola, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Monumento a Ludovico Ariosto, Piazza Ariostea, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516). -[never heard of either…:) ]

Discarded Apple, Piazza Trento – Trieste, Ferrara , Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Order of Architects P.P.C. of the Province of Ferrara, Corso Isonzo, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Drogheria Bazzi & C. – Taverna con Bottega, Piazza del Municipio, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

We enjoyed a couple of evening meals here!