Historical building, Ferrara
Now a popular venue for temporary exhibitions, the Palazzo dei Diamanti is one of the most symbolic buildings in the city of Ferrara. Designed by architect Biagio Rossetti, the palace is the emblem of the Ferrara Renaissance age, as well as of the court of the Este family and the great intellectuals who revolved around it.
Founded as the residence of Sigismondo d'Este, brother of Ercole I, Palazzo dei Diamanti is located in Corso Ercole I, in the so-called Quadrivio degli Angeli, what was to be the centre of the Addizione Erculea. This expression is used to define the extension of the city ordered in the 15th century by Duke Hercules I, with the aim of enlarging and modernising the ancient medieval urban fabric and ultimately recreating the model of the ideal city.
As part of the duke's project, the Quadrivio degli Angeli was to represent the intersection of the two main roads of the Herculean addition, which was however never completed. On the one hand because of the erroneous forecast of the city's demographic growth, and on the other hand because of the political crisis the Este family went through in those years, which shortly afterwards led to their decline.