Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica Day 83: Ferrara

Ferrara, Ferrara,
la bella città:
si mangia, si beve,
e allegri si sta!

- Riccardo Bacchelli, Il mulino del Po (1940)

Ferrara. Wow! Where to begin?

With a plate of cappellacci di zucca?

And how to end? With a slice of tenerina chocolate cake?

But such rewards must be earned, walking the city's cobblestone streets from one artistic treasure to another. In the end, I clocked up almost as many steps on this "rest day" as on a day walking a stage of the Way! 😅

I began with a brief walk around town before dinner last night, and continued my exploration today, with a combination ticket to many of the city's top sights.

My first stop last night was the cathedral, where tourists were being kicked out as the Saturday evening service was about to begin. And so of course I attended the service, and afterwards asked an elderly nun where I could get a stamp for my pilgrim credential; she took me behind the altar - where tourists cannot go - to see an even older nun, who stamped my credential. On the way out I paused to take a photo of the ceiling frescoes above the altar.

The cathedral was built in the 12th century, but its interior was unfortunately redone entirely in Baroque style in the 1700s. The façade is still the original one, and looks fantastic in the pictures - but a large part of it is currently covered in scaffolding, along with the Renaissance bell tower.

The Loggia dei Mercanti along the southern wall of the cathedral

The cloister of the nearby chapter-house, now the cathedral museum

The adjacent cathedral museum is small but well worth a visit to see the carvings representing the months of the year, removed from what used to be the Pilgrims' Door of the cathedral before the 18th-century alterations. The level of detail in the sculptures is truly amazing, from the botanical accuracy of the fig trees, grapevines and sheaves of wheat to the details of the figures' hairstyles and footwear.

Also housed in the museum is a beautiful life-sized Madonna and Child carved in 1403 by Sienese sculptor Jacopo della Quercia.

But I actually proceeded in chronological order: first thing in the morning I visited the archaeological museum in Palazzo Costabili. Worth visiting just to see the palace itself, the museum houses artefacts from 4000 tombs discovered in 1922 during the reclamation of the nearby swamplands of the Comacchio area, the necropolis of the ancient town of Spina, a meeting-place of Greek, Etruscan and Celtic cultures. I hadn't realised before that the Etruscan territory extended so far north!

My favourite part of the museum was actually the hundred-year-old maps and charts of the excavations, with their graphics in pure Rationalist style.

From the archaeological museum I proceeded to visit the walls and ramparts of Ferrara, and the convent of Sant'Antonio in Polesine, where I was however unable to see the frescoes as they are in the inner part of the church, which is closed to visitors on Sundays as the convent is still active and inhabited, I believe, by cloistered nuns.

On my way back toward the city centre, I wandered through the former Jewish ghetto. Ferrara has always had a large Jewish community, especially since 1492, when Ercole I Estense welcomed to the city the Sephardic Jews kicked out of Spain by the country's Catholic rulers. The Jewish quarter is now a maze of narrow lanes with plenty of restaurants and bars, particularly lively when I first saw them on a Saturday night, quieter when I passed through again on Sunday morning. Nearby Via delle Volte is a narrow cobblestone street passing through archways in the buildings constructed over it, in the oldest, medieval core of the city, dating back to before the various additions made over the centuries.

After the archaeological museum and the cathedral museum, I had time to fit in a couple more palaces before lunch, in my whirlwind tour of Ferrara! Starting with Palazzina Marfisa d'Este, built in 1559 for Franceso d'Este, second son of the Duke of Ferrara Alfonso d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Marfisa was Francesco's illegitimate daughter, named after a character from the epic Orlando Furioso; she was legitimized by Pope Gregory XIII in 1573, and inherited the palace upon her father's death in 1578. The palace is best known for its ornate ceiling frescoes, in one of which Marfisa herself is represented, as a child.

Not far away is Palazzo Schifanoia, from "schifare la noia" - literally "to beat boredom" - built as a country residence for Alberto V d'Este in 1385. The palazzo features allegorical frescoes painted to designs by Francesco del Cossa and Cosmè Tura in 1469-70. The whole fresco cycle was, incredibly, whitewashed in the 1700s, when the great hall of the palace, fallen into decline and disrepair, was used as a tobacco warehouse!

The 18th-century citizens of Ferrara sure have a lot to answer for - dismantling the sculptures in the cathedral and painting over the frescoes in the palace.....

The rediscovery of the frescoes in 1821 represents one of the most important events in 19th-century studies of art history. The frescoes were restored and the palace opened as the city museum, featuring exhibits about the history of Ferrara with an exceptional setting.

Art may nourish the soul, but the body needs nourishment too - and there is a fine café/restaurant in the gardens of Palazzo Schifanoia serving a selection of local specialties and wines under the trees. A lunch break in the garden was ideal before proceeding on to the next place on my list: the castle.

The Castello Estense was built as a fortified residence for the ruling d'Este family after the incident of 3 May 1385, when the people of the town, driven to desperation by repeated flooding and high taxes, revolted and demanded answers from Tommaso da Tortona, the high official they held responsible for the situation. The ruler, Nicolò d'Este, failing to deter the rioters, sent Tommaso to make his final confession and then gave him into the hands of the people, who literally tore him to pieces. Nicolò realised that the palace in which he and his family lived - now the town hall - did not provide them with sufficient protection and built a fortified castle, surrounded by a moat.

When the castle no longer served its original defensive purpose, it was expanded, renovated and enhanced with new apartments, especially after fire damaged it in 1544. The greatest artists of the age were commissioned to produce paintings, tapestries, coins, illuminated manuscripts and more for the d'Este family residence. But after the d'Este family left Ferrara for Modena in 1598, when the city was devolved to the Papal State, many of these treasures were sold off, so that they may now be found in museums as far away as Saint Petersburg, London and Washington.

Severely damaged again by Allied aerial bombing, it was partially reconstructed in 1946. In 2004 a major restoration project was completed and the castle opened as a museum, with displays designed by world-renowned architect Gae Aulenti. One of its four towers was damaged in the earthquake of 2012, and cracks in the ceiling frescoes, visible as strips of tape in the photos below, are being monitored.

The castle kitchens

Ceiling frescoes

In the Sala dei Giochi (games room)

The view from the castle tower

One last effort: on the way back to the hostel I walked along Corso Ercole I d'Este to Palazzo Diamanti, and this time went inside to see the pictures in the Pinacoteca.