Ferrara

Ferrara was an Este lordship on a branch of the Po in Emilia. In 1337 Obizzo III d'Este ruled the city and its territories.

The Este court became a Renaissance centre: Borso became Duke of Ferrara in 1471, and Ercole I commissioned the Erculean Addition in 1484. After the main line died out in 1597, Pope Clement VIII took Ferrara, while the family kept Modena and Reggio. French troops entered in 1796; the Congress of Vienna restored Ferrara to the Papal States in 1815.