Porta degli Angeli

Porta degli Angeli stands at the end of Corso Ercole I d'Este, once one of the main streets of Ferrara's Addizione Erculea. This expression is used to define the extension of the city ordered in the 15th century by Duke Ercole I, with the aim of expanding the ancient medieval urban centre and recreating the model of the ideal city. However, the ambitious project was not fully completed due to an erroneous forecast on the demographic development of the city.

Built for military purposes, Porta degli Angeli was a lookout point and part of Ferrara's well-preserved defensive walls. Today the gate has been converted into wide tree-lined avenues, where the people of Ferrara go for a stroll or a run. Inside there were rooms for the guards, while a fortified wooden bridge was used to gain access over a depression.

In addition to its defensive role, the gate was also used as a triumphal entrance to the city centre. Corso Ercole I d'Este leads right in front of the Estense Castle, the main residence of the House of Este from the Renaissance onwards.

On the opposite side of the gate is the Giorgio Bassani public park, dedicated to the famous author of The Garden of the Finzi-Contini, who lived in Ferrara and was buried here in the Jewish Cemetery.

Porta degli Angeli and the end of the Este family

The history of Porta degli Angeli is also intertwined with the final stages of Este rule in Ferrara. Due to a technicality, the marriage of Cesare d'Este's grandparents was not recognised by the Pope, making Cesare himself an illegitimate heir. Despite initial remonstrances against this decision by the pontiff, Cesare finally had to give in, and in 1598 he left the city through Porta degli Angeli itself.

The expulsion of the Este family from Ferrara marked the beginning of papal rule over the city, symbolised also by the closing of the gate after Cesare's passage, which in fact sanctioned that the Este family would never return to the city.

The Pope thus regained possession of the feud that he had granted to his ancestors centuries earlier, with the only condition being that a male heir would always be present. Instead, the Este family went to Modena and elected it as the new capital of the Estense Duchy, and the Este control over Modena and Reggio Emilia would remain in place until the Unification of Italy.

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