City of Ferrara

I chose the theme concerning one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, Ferrara. Personally, I think it is one of the few cities worth knowing due to its amazing and precious cultural and non-cultural assets.

Ferrara is an Italian town of 131.949 inhabitants, capital of the homonymous province in Emilia-Romagna. It was the capital of the Duchy of Ferrara during the Este period, when it represented an important political, artistic and cultural center. The urban development that took place during the Renaissance, the Addizione Erculea, made it the first modern capital of Europe.

In 1995, it obtained the recognition of the patrimony of humanity as a city of the Renaissance by UNESCO, and in 1999 it obtained a second for the Po delta and for its extensive delights. Ferrara is home of one university (University of Ferrara) and archiepiscopal (archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio). The economy is historically based on agricultural production, but has industrial plants, such as petrochemicals, various industries and a center for small and medium-sized businesses.
THE ESTENSE CASTLE is the ideal starting point for a visit to Ferrara. Undisputed symbol of the city, it rises imposingly in the historical center of Ferrara: it is one of the rare examples of a castle with a watered moat visible today in Italy.

Its construction began in 1385 and today is brick-colored, with four large towers on the sides. The visit begins by crossing the drawbridges and, once inside, you can visit the prisons and the large frescoed rooms, used for games and the court's delight. In some halls inside the Castle there is the exhibition "The Art for the Art", where the masterpieces of two artists from Ferrara, Giovanni Boldini and Filippo De Pisis, are exhibited.

THE CATHEDRAL OF SAN GIORGIO MARTIRE is known as the "Duomo", as it is the main place of worship in the city. Built in white marble, it bears signs of all the historical eras that Ferrara has undergone over the centuries, both on the facade and inside. Its Renaissance bell tower, by Leon Battista Alberti, has remained unfinished.

VIA DELLE VOLTE is called so because of the arches and suspended passages that characterize it. This is one of the corners of the city where time seems to have really stopped, where it is still possible to breathe an authentic atmosphere. It is about 2 kilometers long. Nowadays nothing remains of this ancient history but there still lingers a certain atmosphere that reminds her of its medieval charm.

THE DIAMOND PALACE. Its name derives from the approximately 8,500 ashlars in white and pink diamond-shaped marble that covers the two facades: it was designed by the architect Biagio Rossetti for the brother of Ercole I d’Este, Sigismondo. Legend says that one of the studs contains an authentic diamond hidden by Hercules I, belonging to his crown: only he and the foreman knew the exact location. Therefore, the Duke would have done blind and cut the tongue of the unfortunate foreman, in order to make the position of the precious diamond secret forever.

Visiting Ferrara, while you get lost in the alleys of the historic center or while visiting one of its marvelous monuments, it seems to go back hundreds of years is a city, not by chance a World Heritage Site for years, where even in a day visit you can immerse yourself in a sea of ​​culture, in a city on a human scale.

Marzia Gentile

(Artigo de opinião produzido no âmbito da unidade curricular “Economia do Turismo”, de opção, lecionada a alunos de vários cursos de mestrado da EEG, a funcionar no 2º semestre do ano letivo 2018/2019)