Musei Civici di Arte Antica
Comune di Ferrara

The Hall known as "delle Lapidi" is so called because of the gravestones lining the walls and dedicated to the fellow citizens who died for freedom (from the Reinassance to the Liberation from Nazism and Fascism). The wide hall is characterised by an interesting paneled wooden ceiling, on which were placed XVI frescos with coats of arms and mythological figures from a different precious palace.

At the left of the entrance, through a short corridor, is the Hall of the City Council, planned after the Second World War by the engineer Carlo Savonuzzi and inaugurated in 1952. On the front wall dominates the coat of arms representing, in Ferrara’s colours, the Po river and its tributaries, work executed by the local sculptor Giuseppe Virgili (Voghiera 1894 - Bologna 1968).

At the end of the same corridor is the ‘Golden Hall’, characterised by a wooden ceiling with dimond panels, ennobled by golden stucco rosettes, also painted on paper.
The precious artefact, recently restord by the Ferrara city council, was realised in the second half of the XV Century. In this period Ercole I d’Este decided to transform the Ducal Palace endowing it with Reinassance features, ennobling its interiors with refined decorations.
A XV Century band, adorned with Tritons and Bucrania along with other decorations and fake marbles, already in place when the ceiling was realised, contributes to enrich the hall.



Image credits:

The Hall of the City Council, the coat of arms with Ferrara’s colours