Ficarolo

Ficarolo occupied a strategic position on the Po opposite the southern-bank fortress of Stellata. Together the two strongholds watched a river that carried commerce while also dividing rival territories. Ficarolo's links with Ferrara made it a forward position of the Este rulers in the low-lying country north of the river.

During the War of Ferrara in 1482–1484, Venetian forces besieged the fortress and overcame its garrison. The peace of Bagnolo nevertheless returned Ficarolo to Ferrara, leaving it within the Transpadana Ferrarese, the Ferrarese lands across the Po. It remained under the Este until the devolution of Ferrara to the Papal States in 1598. Later political changes again altered its allegiance: after the Napoleonic period, the settlement passed into the Austrian Lombardo-Venetian kingdom in 1815. The riverfront therefore retained close connections with Ferrara even as warfare and treaties repeatedly redrew the jurisdiction around it.