Ferrara Estense Castle (Italy)

The Castle Estense or Castle of St. Michael, is the most significant monument of the city of Ferrara and is located right in the city center. The fortress was built in 1385 by Nicolò II d'Este, to protect themselves from attacks of the citizens themselves, who were in a state of general discontent against the government of the Este.

The people, exhausted by hunger and poverty, joined to kill Tommaso da Tortona, a magistrate of Judges dei Savi, hated by everyone. Then she joined to overthrow the monarchy of the d'Este family of Ferrara centuries-old mistress. The Estense Castle was designed by the court Bartolino from Novara, who had it built around the Tower of the Lions. The building so had a square plan, with four corner towers, linked by curtain walls.

The building was built in only two years and was equipped with a moat around the perimeter, several drawbridges and other advanced defense systems. Erected for military defense reasons, from the mid-fifteenth century, with Hercules II, he assumed the role of the court house for the lords of the city. In the basement there were prisons, of which it is said, in an ancient legend, the tragic love story of Hugh and Parisina respectively eldest son and second wife of the Marquis Nicholas III, who were imprisoned in the Tower of the Lions before being executed. On that occasion, taken from the fury of the Parisina wife's betrayal, Nicholas III killed all the women adulteresses Ferrara; it is said, therefore, that in the castle prisons there are two ghosts who still mourn inside the souls of women died because of them.