Ferrara City Guide

Farmhouse Le Occare Guest house
An ancient farmhouse in the countryside of Ferrara

Ferrara Cathedral

The Cathedral "Duomo di Ferrara"

The aim of this Ferrara city guide is to offer to the visitors some suggestions for the discovery of the magnificent city of Ferrara, recently acknowledged as an UNESCO world heritage.
At the end of this Ferrara Guide you will also find a list of the main Ferrara monuments and museums, with addresses and timetable, downloadable in pdf format.
Another section of this guide is dedicated to the Ferrara countryside and surroundings.
Ferrara is a magnificent and very well preserved medieval and renaissance city, filled of art treasures and will offer to you a lot of important monuments to discover. Ferrara center is only 15.5 miles, 25 km far from Le Occare Guesthouse.
Your guided tour will start with the wonderful Cathedral, built by Nicolò, who also sculpted the superb bass-relief of the front. The Ferrara “Duomo” was opened to the cult in 1135. In the tympanum there is a remarkable bass-relief of the last judgement, with the damned and the elected. The right side of the Cathedral is partially occulted by the suggestive “Loggia dei Merciai”. The close "Opera del Duomo" museum in the San Romano church, keeps the magnificent remains of the ruined "Porta dei Mesi", and aslo paintings of Cosme Tura and the renowned “Madonna del Melograno” by Jacopo della Quercia. Than you can visit the near “Volto del Cavallo” and “Piazza del Municipio”.

"Piazza Municipio" and "Loggia dei Merciai"

From here with a short walking you can reach the magnificent Castle (Castello Estense), anciently the luxury residence of the Este court, that was inhabited by the famous Lucrezia Borgia. It's admirably well preserved, with its powerful structure and its moat, anciently linked to the Po river through navigable channels. The building of the Castle was started in the XIII century. It became the residence of Ercole I d'Este and his court in 1487. Nowadays it's frequently used for fine art exhibitions.

The castle and the moat

With another short walking along the “Corso Ercole d'Este” you arrive at the “Palazzo dei Diamanti”, masterpiece by the Ferrara renaissance architect Biagio Rossetti, that is the symbolic place of Ferrara. It's the location of the fine art museum "Pinacoteca Nazionale", with important paintings of Cosme Tura, Francesco Del Cossa, Ercole de Robertis, Dosso Dossi and Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, as well as important exhibitions of modern art. Also remarkable the close “Palazzo Prosperi Sacrati”. Very close to the “Palazzo dei Diamanti” is the “Museo Boldini”, dedicated to the paintings of the Ferrara 19th century painter Giovanni Boldini.
Then I suggest you to take a slow walk along the “Corso Ercole d'Este you will prove the feeling to have entered a time machine and to be back in the time of two centuries or more.

Palazzo dei Diamanti and Corso Ercole D'Este

The Schifanoia palace hosts the precious fresco cycle of the Renaissance painting school "Officina Ferrarese", the months cycle, painted by Cosme Tura, Ercole De Robertis e Francesco del Cossa. Close to it there is also the ancient Lapidario. Another must is the Marfisa Villa with the magnificent orange's loggia or Marfisa theatre, built by Aleotti.
A lot of other important masterpieces may be visited in the many churches of Ferrara and an important cycle of medieval fresco is visible in the convent of Sant'Antonio in Polesine.
The Spina Archeological Museum is located in the magnificent Costabili Palace, also named "Ludovico il Moro" Palace.
The superb ancient city wall, well preserved and recently submitted to a mighty restoration, is perfect for a walking or a biking tour. The main theatre, “Teatro Comunale” offers a good selection of plays and also opera and symphonic music and every year welcomes the famous director Claudio Abbado.
You can download a guide of the addresses and timetable of Ferrara Museums posted in the forum and you will aslo find the list of the events and exhibitions in Ferrara in current and next month in .pdf format.
You may also visit the Guide to Ferrara surroundings and the Guide to Po Delta Park.
Service provided by Le Occare Guesthouse Ferrara - Italy.