The Addizione Erculea or Erculean Addition is the area of urban expansion created in 1492 by the enlargement of the walled city limits of Ferrara, Italy. It is celebrated as an example of Renaissance urban planning. The walled medieval city of Ferrara was geographically limited from southward expansion by a branch of the delta of the Po river. In 1450, the prior Duke,

Borso d'Este Borso d'Este, attributed to Vicino da Ferrara, Pinacoteca of the Castello Sforzesco">Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy. Borso d'Este (1413 – August 20, 1471) was Duke of Ferrara, and the first Duchy of Modena and Reggio, Duke of Modena, which he rul ...

(1450) had enlarged slightly the city southward with reclaimed land from the river banks. However,

Ercole d'Este Ercole I d'Este KG (English: ''Hercules I''; 26 October 1431 – 25 January 1505) was Duke of Ferrara from 1471 until 1505. He was a member of the House of Este. He was nicknamed ''North Wind'' and ''The Diamond''. Biography Ercole was born in ...

had suffered from attacks and sieges from Venice to the north and the Papal states to the South. In 1492, in order to accommodate the burgeoning city and create a more daunting city-fortress to withstand sieges, Ercole d'Este commissioned plans from the architect

Biagio Rossetti Biagio Rossetti ( 1447 – 1516) was an Italian architect and urbanist from Ferrara. A military engineer since 1483, and the ducal architect of Ercole I d'Este, in 1492 Rossetti was assigned the project of enlarging the city of Ferrara. Rossett ...

for an urban expansion north of the city. The walls at this border coincided with the north flank of the

Castello Estense The ' (‘ Este castle’) or ' (‘St. Michael's castle’) is a moated medieval castle in the center of Ferrara, northern Italy. It consists of a large block with four corner towers. History On 3 May 1385, the Ferrarese people, driven to des ...

. These walls were razed and the moat, present Corso Giovecca, was filled in. Unlike the dense haphazard tracks of the medieval center, the Addizione created a main east-west road (analogous to a

Decumanus Maximus In Roman urban planning, a decumanus was an east–west-oriented road in a Roman city or castrum (military camp). The main decumanus of a particular city was the Decumanus Maximus, or most often simply "the Decumanus". In the rectangular street g ...

) represented now by Corso Porta Po, Biagio Rosetti, and Porta Mare; and north-south street (analogous to a

Cardo Maximus A cardo (plural ''cardines'') was a north–south street in Ancient Roman cities and military camps as an integral component of city planning. The cardo maximus, or most often the ''cardo'', was the main or central north–south-oriented street ...

) represented by the now Corso Ercole I d'Este parting from the Castello. The Addizione more than doubled the size of the walled town and included areas for cultivation and private parks (now encompassed by the Cemetery of the Certosa and the Jewish cemetery). Among the buildings erected over the next decades and centuries in this sector were the Palazzina di Marfisa d'Este, the church of Santa Chiara, Palazzo Roverella; the Palazzo Prosperi-Sacrati; the church of Teatini; the church of San Carlo, and the 17th century Teatro Comunale. The walls of Ferrara once spanned 13 kilometers, some 9 kilometers still stand, mainly to the north and east of the city. The Porta degli Angeli was an original Northern entrance to the Addizione Erculea.Ferrara Terra e Acqua
entry on walls of the city.

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1492 Renaissance architecture in Ferrara Buildings and structures in Ferrara City walls in Italy Duchy of Ferrara History of Ferrara