Column by Ercole Grandi

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Column by Ercole Grandi, 1675
Statue of Ludovico Ariosto by Francesco and Mansueto Vidoni, 1833
Piazza Ariostea
Ferrara, May 2022

“In the early 16th century, Duke Ercole I commissioned Ercole Grandi to design two columns for his own equestrian monument. On the way to Ferrara, one of the columns was lost in the Po River. The other one, which reached the town, was not immediately raised. The column was placed in the square only in 1675 to house the statue of Pope Alexander VII. In 1796, the French replaced the papal statue with a plaster statue depicting ‘Liberty’, which was demolished in 1799. In 1810, a large statue of Napoleon was placed on the column, which remained there only four years, until the Austrians arrived in Ferrara. Finally, on November 25, 1833, the statue of the poet Ludovico Ariosto was placed on the column. In 1933, the plan of the square was lowered, to create a sort of natural staircase around it, and to allow the first modern edition of the Palio of Ferrara. Important restoration works were carried out in the square between 2018 and 2020. The square has a rectangular shape with a lowered central ring made in 1933 for the Palio race. At the center of the square stands the 16th-century column designed by Ercole Grandi, on which, since 1833, the statue of Ludovico Ariosto was placed.” (Piazza Ariostea, Italyscapes)