Palazzo dei Diamanti

The Palazzo dei Diamanti is a Renaissance palace located on Corso Ercole I d'Este 21 in Ferrara, a city in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna. The main floor of the palace houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara (National Painting Gallery of Ferrara).

To accommodate the growth of Ferrara, in 1492 the Duke Ercole I d'Este demolished the medieval walls of the city on the north and had the court architect, Biagio Rossetti, design an urban expansion known as the Addizione Erculea. Rosetti was commissioned by Sigismondo d'Este, brother of the Duke Ercole I, to build this palace at the prestigious intersection of what was to be the Decumanus Maximus (now encompassing Corsi Porta Po, Biagio Rossetti, and Porta Mare) and Cardo Maximus (Corso Ercole I d'Este) of the "urban addition". It was built between 1493 and 1503. Used as a residential home by the Este family and, starting in 1641, by the Villa marquis, in 1832 the palace was acquired by the municipality of Ferrara to house the National Gallery of Art and the Civic University.

The most striking feature is the bugnato of the exterior walls: it consists of some 8,500 white (with pink veins) marble blocks carved to represent diamonds, hence its name. The positioning of the diamonds varies in order to maximize the light reflected off the building, creating quite the visual effect. The palace is also well known for its candelabra and the phytomorphic corner motifs. Inside, it has a typical Renaissance courtyard with a cloister and a marble well; the latter is a characteristic typical of gardens in Ferrara.

The main floor of the palazzo houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale, with paintings from the Ferrarese school from the Middle Ages up to the 18th century. The oldest paintings are large frescoes (The Triumph of Saint Augustine by Serafino da Modena) and wooden panels with gold-leaf backgrounds, such as the Madonna and Child by Gentile da Fabriano. The main artists from the 15th century in Ferrara represented in the museum are Cosmè Tura (Justice and The Martyrdom of Saint Maurelius), Ercole de' Roberti, Vicino da Ferrara and Michele Pannonio. There are works from the Este family collections, including a work by Andrea Mantegna (Christ Bearing the Soul of the Virgin). There are also two works by unidentified artists from the collection of the Marquis Leonello d'Este at the Palazzo Belfiore.

Text adapted from “Palazzo dei Diamanti” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Palazzo dei Diamanti ranks #1,246 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #95 of the 452 mapped in Italy. Founded 1550, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,840 times in the last 60 days, more than 80% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Ferrara, 1 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗