The palace
The court palace
On 1st September 1476 Ercole I d'Este was out of town. His nephew Nicolò, Leonello's son, took advantage of his absence and invaded with a large group of armed townsfolk. He took possession of the piazza under the insignia of the "sail" erected against his uncle's insignia the "diamond".
The castle under Ercole I
With Ercole and Eleonora a lot of new decoration was done, both on the inside and the outside, but more than anything else important extensions and changes were made along the side that goes from the old palace to the rooms near the Torre dei Leoni.
The castle under Alfonso I
Ercole died in 1505 and was succeeded by his son Alfonso I who continued the renovation work on the castle-palace undertaken by his father and supported by the court architect Biagio Rossetti.
The castle under Ercole II
Ercole II, the son of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, continued the work of improving the castle, which bore the strong signs of his father, with refinement and sensibility.
The castle under Alfonso II
The work that revolutionized the appearance of the monument was completed in a respectable manner, after Girolamo's sudden death, by Alberto Schiatti, who handled the repairs needed after the disastrous earthquake that struck Ferrara and its castle in 1570. In the meantime Alfonso II became duke.
