Ferrara

Ancient walls of the city of Ferarra

Town Hall built in15th century

Imposing buildings but by the Este family

The town's synagogue established in 1485

tombstones in Jewish cemetery

The National Museum of Italian Hebraism and the Shoah (MEIS)

Ferrara is a city in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, not Tuscany but included on our tour. It’s known for the buildings erected by its Renaissance rulers, the Este family. These include the moated Este Castle, with its lavish private chambers. The family also built the Diamanti Palace, which is clad in diamond-shaped marble blocks and home to the National Picture Gallery. The Romanesque Ferrara Cathedral has a 3-tiered facade and a marble bell tower.

The Jewish community of Ferrara is the only one in Emilia Romagna with a continuous presence from the Middle Ages to the present day. It played an important role when Ferrara enjoyed its greatest splendor in the 15th and 16th century, with the duke Ercole I d'Este. The situation of the Jews deteriorated in 1598, when the Este dynasty moved to Modena and the city came under papal control. The Jewish settlement, located in three streets forming a triangle near the cathedral, became a ghetto  in 1627. Apart from a few years under  Napoleon and during the 1848 revolution, the ghetto lasted until Italian unification in 1859.

The National Museum of Italian Hebraism and the Shoah (MEIS) opened and we got to visit it. Amazing information so well presented 1000 years of Jewish history in Italy.