Ground floor
Ticket office
The ticket office of the castle is in the courtyard, at ground floor. Access from the glass ramp.
The castle of Saint Michael
On 29 September 1385 the marchese Nicolò II ordered the construction of an impregnable fortress.
Monuments as documents: the rise of the este dynasty
The Este became lords of Ferrara since 1264, when the Ferrarese commune acclaimed Obizzo II as perpetual “Dominus generalis” of the city and the surrounding territory.
Culture at court at the time of Leonello
n 1428 Nicolò III summoned Guarino da Verona (1376-1460) - one of the most acknowledged Italian humanists of the period - to provide adequate education to his son and “in pectore” successor Leonello.
The Prince's Magnificence
During the XV century Magnificence and Liberality were more and more numbered among the supreme Virtues...
The ducal kitchens
The large hall of the kitchens was carried out at the beginnings of the Cinquecento on the orders of Alfonso I, resulting from the extension of the eastern demilune that used the foundations of the demolished Lion’s Gate.
The Lion's tower
Before 1385, since at least one hundred years, on the site where the Castle of Saint Michael was built, an old watchtower stood to defend the northern line of the city walls and, more exactly, the near strategic gate called of the Lion, beyond which a small homonymous district extended. A large canal, that flew into the river Po with its tributaries, defended the northern stretch of walls.
Archaeology room
The "Archaeology Room", is a new space added this year to the path of the Museum. It documents in an exceptional way, the construction phases of the monument in the XIV e XV centuries.
The prisons
The ancient military and repressive vocation of the Castle is well represented by its prisons, whose gloomy and impregnable atmosphere owes much to their location in the basement.
