
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara) | Photo @paeseitaliapress.it
Towards the end of the 15th century, architect Biagio Rossetti carried out one of the most famous projects of urban redevelopment in the amazing city of Ferrara, the quiet and elegant Unesco Heritage City.
By order of Duke Ercole d’Este 1st (1471-1505), the Erculean Addition was built as a real extension of the urban fabric north to the majestic Cstello Estense.
The new district, which was built over the already existing historical urban fabric, developed around two orthogonal streets, the current Corso Ercole I and Corso Rossetti. From here, following that 14th-century idea of the perspective view, the district expanded from the castle, the visual and functional centre of the newborn Ferrara, to the Este lands in the countryside (including the Belfiore Castle).
Rossetti, in order to give more prominence and prestige to this new urban design, decided to nestle in the crossing between all these axises the Palazzo dei Diamanti with its characteristic ashlar aspect and the top shaped like that of a diamond, which contrasted with the traditional brick-façade that had been used for the buildings in Ferrara until that moment.