The Wall

I've mentioned before that Ferrara is surrounded by a 9-kilometer wall that is supposed to be one of the best-preserved Renaissance walls in Italy. Currently, the wall is used as a walking and biking trail. This morning, The Linguist, Pianogurl and I walked part of the wall. It was a foggy morning, but the view was beautiful!

After our walk, I was curious about the wall. Poking around for information about it took me to the family d'Este -- early rulers of Ferrara and to Ercole I d'Este, who gets credit for commissioning Biogio Rosetti to plan Ferrara and build the wall. If you're interested in more of the history, I wrote a little about that below the pictures...

The wall is what you can see to the right.

Apparently, the House of Este had two branches. The older branch, known as Welf-Este or just Welfe, produced England's Hanovarian monarchs. The House of Hanover is a German royal dynasty that ruled different parts of Germany, Ireland and Great Britain. Queen Victoria was actually the last British monarch from the House of Hanover. Interestingly, she carefully married off all of her children and grandchildren in such a way that Europe was tied together. Hence her title -- the Grandmother of Europe...

Anyway...it's the younger branch of the House of Este we are concerned with in Ferrara. According to Wikipedia, the beginning of the line was in 975 when a man by the surname of Azzo built a castle at Este and named himself after it. He had three sons and the oldest son is the ancestor of the Welf-Este family I mentioned above. The middle son died without heirs. The third son, Fulco, is the ancestor of the younger Este line. He was given Ferrara in an agreement reached with his brother in the 1100's.

A successor, Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara from 1471 to 1505, commissioned the building of the wall. Under him, Ferrara was heralded as one of the leading cities of Europe, doubling in size and boasting the first urban planning in the Renaissance. The wall was built to enclose this gem!

Apparently, the legitimate line d'Este ends with Ercole II d'Este in 1597. There's a bit of intrigue since the emperor recognized an illegitimate cousin as the next heir, and then the Pope annexed Ferrara as part of the Papal State a year later because of the heir's illegitimacy. I'm a little foggy on the details after this because Ferrara is still being ruled by an Ercol III d' Este in 1796, when he is deposed by Napoleon...but so goes the soap opera of European royalty, I suppose.