Este Castle

History

On 3 May 1385, the Ferrarese people, driven to desperation by taxes and flooding that had brought ruin upon them, took themselves to the Marquis Niccolò II d'Este's palace to ask the advice of Tommaso da Tortona, the high official held to be responsible for this grave situation. Nicolò tried to calm the revolt all day, but by the evening it was clear that the people's spirits were getting more and more angry and that the very safety of the Estensi was endangered. The order was therefore given to summon the disgraced Tommaso, who was given confession and communion and then given to the crowd, who literally tore him to pieces.

This episode, which resulted later in the death of the leaders of the revolt, convinced the Marquis that the family's palace (which is now the Palazzo Comunale) was insufficient to guarantee the security of the nobility in the event of riots. He therefore ordered the construction of a defensive fortress on the north side of the Palazzo, entrusting the project to the architect Bartolino da Novara. He used a pre-existing tower (the Torre dei Leoni), which was part of the defensive walls, at that period very much to the south of the present ones, running, roughly speaking, along the line of the present Corso Giovecca and Viale Cavour. The tower was joined by curtain walls to another three newly built for this project. Between the Este residence and the new fortress was built an aerial passageway (perhaps in wood) to allow people to flee from one to the other. …

Exterior

On the outside, the castle essentially presents the appearance given to it by Girolamo da Carpi in the second half of the 16th century. Surrounded by a moat, it has three entrances with drawbridges fronted by brickwork ravelins. The fourth entrance, to the east, was removed to make room for the kitchens.

At the bottom, the appearance of the building still recalls a mediaeval fortress, but higher up, da Carpi replaced the battlements with elegant balconies in white stone (resting on series of corbels), making it higher again by constructing a higher storey, covered by a skew roof. The towers were improved and made more graceful with roof terraces.

The courtyard, nowadays fairly austere, was frescoed. In particular, at the top were portraits of all the ancestors (real and legendary) of the Este family: the only ones surviving, considerably damaged but still discernible, have been detached and placed under the portico on the east side of the courtyard.

The wells were to provide water in time of drought; the round stone balls that are seen about the place are ammunition for catapults.

Ground floor

The Gothic Rooms are series of four evocative living rooms with cross-vaulted ceilings. The first is certainly the most beautiful, with rich decorations of clusters of flowers running along the ribs of the vault. The room is dedicated to Nicolà II d'Este (his portrait stands out facing the entrance), who built the castle. At the centre is found a magnificent reconstruction in wood of the castle in the early years of its existence. The three following rooms are dedicated to the Marquises Alberto, Niccolò III and Leonello, and finally Borso, the first duke of the dynasty. A series of panels illustrates the political and cultural life of the period.

The east ravelin of the castle was enlarged and used to house the court kitchens. The first of the two rooms, long and narrow, shows signs of the two distinct functions, military and civil, that it had over the course of time: opposite the entrance can be seen a chimney pipe from the kitchen, while along the inside walls are found arrow-slits for archers, some walled up so as to be nearly useless. In the second room, much bigger and lighter, some stoves have been reconstructed. On one wall is seen the portrait of Cristoforo di Messisbugo, the most famous of the Este's 'Scalcos' – the Scalco was the official who supervised many of the practical aspects of court life, organised spectacles, directed the kitchens, and readied things whenever necessary for moves to and from the family's country residences, etc. …

First floor

The Courts have several rooms with remains of frescoes and panels describing the different apartments of the castle.

The Garden of the Oranges assumed its current size and characteristics under Alfonso I and evokes powerfully the presence of the court, standing here unseen by the people, amid the perfume of the orange blossoms, admiring the city. The wall of the hanging garden was constructed following the plans of Girolamo da Carpi. Archive documents are rich in observations about the hanging gardens and these have allowed the reconstruction of their various arrangements: from little paths among large flowerbeds (whose soil had been carried up here) of annual plants, to the 18th century arrangement, which featured only citrus plants, in pots that were sheltered in the winter in a Loggia used as a greenhouse.

This is a little passageway that was at one time completely painted; the right-hand wall still shows three scenes inspired by the myth of Bacchus.

The Ducal Chapel is a little room with elegant geometric lines, destinated to private praying. An old tradition argued that Renée de France – wife of Duke Ercole II of Este who had Calvinist sympathies – ordered this particular decoration, without sacred images. On the walls, coated all over with precious polychrome marbles, no sacred image – either painted or in mosaic – is actually represented, as one would at least expect in the small niches. The vault, conversely, is decorated with frescoes portraying the Four Evangelists against a light blue background, surrounded by cherubs, each of them respectively recognizable by the lion (Saint Mark), the eagle (Saint Luke), the angel (Saint Matthew) and the bull (Saint John) in accordance with the iconographic tradition. …