Jewish community 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
Ercole I d'Este. The situation of the Jews deteriorated in 1598, when the Este dynasty moved to Modena and the city came under papal control. The Jewish settlement, located in three streets forming a triangle near the cathedral, became a
ghetto in 1627. Apart from a few years under
Napoleon and during the 1848 revolution, the ghetto lasted until
Italian unification in 1859. In 1799, the Jewish community saved the city from sacking by troops of the
Holy Roman Empire. During the spring of 1799, the city had fallen into the hands 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. 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. 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. 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. 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,
Giorgio Bassani, was from Ferrara. His celebrated book,
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, was published in Italian as Giardino dei Finzi-Contini, 1962, by Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a. It was made into a film by
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 13 December 2017, the first day of
Hanukkah, Italy's
Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah opened on the site of a restored two-story brick prison built in 1912 that counted Jews among its detainees during the
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.
Visual art 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
School of Ferrara. The astounding list of painters and artists includes the names of
Andrea Mantegna,
Vicino da Ferrara,
Giovanni Bellini,
Leon Battista Alberti,
Pisanello,
Piero della Francesca,
Battista Dossi,
Dosso Dossi,
Cosmé Tura,
Francesco del Cossa and
Titian. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Ferrara again hosted and inspired numerous painters who grew fond of its eerie atmosphere. Among them
Giovanni Boldini,
Filippo de Pisis and
Giorgio de Chirico. A large collection of paintings is displayed in the National Gallery of
Palazzo dei Diamanti.
Literature 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
Ferrara Bible was a 1553 publication of the
Ladino version of the
Tanakh used by
Sephardi Jews. It was paid for and made by Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (the Spanish
Marrano Jerónimo de Vargas, as typographer) and
Abraham ben Salomon Usque (the Portuguese 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 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. The court became hostile to Protestant sympathizers after the marriage of Renée's daughter Anna d'Este to the fervently Catholic Duke of Guise. The Church of
San Cristoforo alla Certosa, former monastic church of the
Ferrara Charterhouse (), dates from 1498 and remains on the site of a former
charterhouse or
Carthusian monastery, sponsored by the Duke
Borso d'Este in 1452. After being suppressed in the time of Napoleon, the church was reconsecrated in 1813, and a large public cemetery was inaugurated on the site the same year.
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.
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 film directors
Michelangelo Antonioni and
Florestano Vancini. The latter shot in Ferrara his 1960 film
Long Night in 1943. The town was also the setting of the famous 1970 movie
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by
Vittorio De Sica, that tells the vicissitudes of a rich Jewish family during the dictatorship of
Benito Mussolini and
World War II. Furthermore,
Wim Wenders and
Michelangelo Antonioni's
Beyond the Clouds in (1995) and
Ermanno Olmi's
The Profession of Arms in (2001), a film about the last days of
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. 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.
Festivals The
Palio of St. George is a medieval-themed horse race held every last Sunday of May. Established in 1279, it is probably the oldest such competition in the world. The Ferrara
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. Additionally, the town hosts the yearly
Ferrara Balloons Festival, a large hot-air balloon show.
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. The club went into
liquidation at the end of the 2024/2025 season, and a new club Ars et Labor Ferrara was founded and currently competes in the regional
Eccellenza Emilia-Romagna league, the fifth level in Italian football. Ferrara's basketball team
Kleb Basket Ferrara competes in the
Serie A2 Basket and plays its home games at the
Palasport di Ferrara.
Cuisine 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. 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. ==International relations==