Editing Ferrara (section)

==History==
{{For timeline}}

===Antiquity and Middle Ages===
[[File:Ornamento in oro, 410-300 ac. ca. 01.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Etruscan jewellery is displayed at the [[wmit:Museo archeologico nazionale di Ferrara|National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara]].]]
The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Graham|first1=Alexander John|title=Colony and mother city in ancient Greece|date=1999|publisher=Manchester University Press|location=Manchester|isbn=0719057396|page=6|edition=Special}}</ref> The ruins of the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] town of [[Spina]], established along the [[lagoon]]s at the ancient mouth of [[Po river]], were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the [[Valli di Comacchio]] marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in Antiquity must have played a major role.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-link=Jean MacIntosh Turfa|editor-last1=Turfa|editor-first1=Jean MacIntosh|title=The Etruscan world|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0415673082|page=295}}</ref>

There is uncertainty among scholars about the proposed [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] origin of the settlement in its current location ([[Tacitus]] and [[Boccaccio]] refer to a "Forum Alieni"<ref name="Frizzi">{{cite book |last1=Frizzi |first1=Antonio |title=Memorie Per La Storia Di Ferrara |volume= 1 |date=2012 |publisher=Nabu Press |location=Florence |isbn=9781274747815 |page=181 |orig-year=1791}}</ref>), for little is known of this period,<ref name="Domenico">{{cite book |last1=Domenico |first1=Roy Palmer |title=The regions of Italy : a reference guide to history and culture |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=978-0313307331 |page=85 |edition=1st}}</ref> but some archeologic evidence points to the hypothesis that Ferrara could have been originated from two small [[Byzantine]] settlements: a cluster of facilities around the Cathedral of St. George, on the right bank of the main branch of the Po, which then ran much closer to the city than today, and a [[castra|castrum]], a fortified complex built on the left bank of the river to defend against the Lombards.<ref name="TCI">{{cite book|title=Ferrara and its province|date=2005|publisher=[[Touring Club Italiano|Touring Club of Italy]]|location=Milan|isbn=9788836534401}}</ref>

Ferrara appears first in a document of the [[Lombards|Lombard]] king [[Desiderius]] of 753 AD, when he captured the town from the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ferrara, Italy |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ferrara-Italy |website=www.britannica.com |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]|access-date=13 December 2017 |language=en}}</ref> Later the [[Franks]], after routing the Lombards, presented Ferrara to the [[Papacy]] in 754 or 756.<ref name="Domenico"/> In 988 Ferrara was ceded by the Church to the [[House of Canossa]], but at the death of [[Matilda of Tuscany]] in 1115 it became a [[Medieval commune|free commune]].<ref name="TCI"/> During the 12th century the history of the town was marked by the wrestling for power between two preeminent families, the [[Guelphs|Guelph]] Adelardi and the [[Ghibelline]] Salinguerra. The powerful Imperial [[House of Este]] threw their decisive weight behind the Salinguerra and eventually reaped the benefits of victory for themselves.<ref name="TCI"/> Thus, in 1264 [[Obizzo II d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara|Obizzo II d'Este]] was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara, taking the additional titles of Lord of [[Modena]] in 1288 and of [[Reggio Nell Emilia|Reggio]] in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598.

===Early modern===
{{main|Duchy of Ferrara}}
In 1452 [[Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Borso d'Este]] was created duke of [[Duchy of Modena|Modena]] and [[Duchy of Reggio|Reggio]] by [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Frederick III]] and in 1471 duke of Ferrara by [[Pope Paul II]].<ref name="Tuohy">{{cite book |last1=Tuohy |first1=Thomas |title=Herculean Ferrara : Ercole d'Este, 1471–1505, and the invention of a Ducal capital |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press, with the assistance of the Istituto di Studi Rinascimentali, Ferrara |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521522632 |page=211 |edition=1st}}</ref> [[Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara|Lionello]] and, especially, [[Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Ercole I]] were among the most important [[patrons of the arts]] in late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy. During this time, Ferrara grew into an international cultural centre, renowned for its architecture, music, literature and visual arts.<ref name="Rosenberg">{{cite book|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Charles M.|title=The court cities of northern Italy : Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521792486|page=198}}</ref>

The architecture of Ferrara greatly benefited from the genius of [[Biagio Rossetti]], who was requested in 1484 by Ercole I to draft a masterplan for the expansion of the town. The resulting "[[Addizione Erculea|Erculean Addition]]" is considered one of the most important examples of Renaissance [[urban planning]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pade |display-authors=etal |first1=Marianne|title=The court of Ferrara & its Patronage|date=1990|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press|location=Copenhagen|isbn=978-8772890500|pages=151–176}}</ref> and contributed to the selection of Ferrara as a [[World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage Site]].
[[File:1520 Veneto Idealbildnis einer Kurtisane als Flora anagoria.JPG|thumb|left|upright|''Flora'', a Roman goddess, by [[Bartolomeo Veneto]]  has been assumed to represent Lucrezia Borgia.]]
In spite of having entered its golden age, Ferrara was severely hit by a [[War of Ferrara (1482–1484)|war]] against [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] fought and lost in 1482–84. [[Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Alfonso I]] succeeded to the throne in 1505 and married the notorious [[Lucrezia Borgia]]. He again fought Venice in the [[Italian Wars]] after joining the [[League of Cambrai]]. In 1509 he was [[excommunication|excommunicated]] by [[Pope Julius II]], but was able to overcome the Papal and Spanish armies in 1512 at the [[Battle of Ravenna (1512)|Battle of Ravenna]]. These successes were based on Ferrara's artillery, produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murrin|first1=Michael|title=History and warfare in Renaissance epic|date=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0226554037|pages=124–125}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallett |first1=Michael |last2=Shaw |first2=Christine |title=The Italian Wars, 1494-1559 : War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe |date=2005 |publisher=Pearson |location=Harlow |isbn=978-0582057586 |page=107 |edition=1st}}</ref>

Upon his death in 1534, Alfonso I was succeeded by his son [[Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara|Ercole II]], whose marriage in 1528 to the second daughter of [[Louis XII]], [[Renée of France]], brought great prestige to the court of Ferrara. Under his reign, the Duchy remained an affluent country and a cultural powerhouse. However, an [[1570 Ferrara earthquake|earthquake]] struck the town in 1570, causing the economy to collapse, and when Ercole II's son [[Alfonso II d'Este|Alfonso II]] died without heirs in 1597, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the [[Papal States]].

===Late modern and contemporary===
Ferrara, a university city second only to Bologna, remained a part of the [[Papal States]] for almost 300 years, an era marked by a steady decline; in 1792 the population of the town was only 27,000, less than in the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hearder|first1=Harry|title=Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento: 1790–1870|date=1994|publisher=Longman |location=London|isbn=978-0582491465|page=96|edition=7th}}</ref> In 1805–1814 it was briefly part of the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy]], a [[client-state]] of the [[First French Empire|French Empire]]. After the 1815 [[Congress of Vienna]], Ferrara was given back to the Pope, now guaranteed by the [[Empire of Austria]]. A [[bastion fort]] was erected in the 1600s by [[Pope Paul V]] on the site the [[Castel Tedaldo]], an old castle at the south-west angle of the town, this was occupied by an [[Empire of Austria|Austrian]] garrison from 1832 until 1859. The fortress was completely dismantled following the [[birth of the Kingdom of Italy]] and the bricks were used for new constructions throughout the town.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Boone|first1=Marc|last2=Stabel|first2=Peter|trans-title=Shaping Urban Identity in Late Medieval Europe |title=L'apparition d'une identité urbaine dans l'Europe du bas moyen age |date=2000 |publisher=Garant |location=Leuven |isbn=978-9044110920 |page=169}}</ref>
[[File:Piazza cattedrale monumento Vittorio Emanuele II Ferrara inizio 1900.jpg|thumb|Downtown Ferrara around 1900]]
During the last decades of the 1800s and the early 1900s, Ferrara remained a modest trade centre for its large rural hinterland that relied on commercial crops such as [[sugar beet]] and [[industrial hemp]]. Large [[land reclamation]] works were carried out for decades with the aim to expand the available [[arable land]] and eradicate [[malaria]] from the wetlands along the Po delta.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Foot|first1=John|title=Modern Italy|date=2014|isbn=978-0230360334|page=151|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |edition=Second}}</ref> Mass industrialisation came to Ferrara only at the end of the 1930s with the set-up of a chemical plant by the Fascist regime that should have supplied the regime with [[synthetic rubber]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zamagni|first1=Vera|title=The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990: From the Periphery to the Centre|date=1993|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0198287735|page=280|edition=Reprint}}</ref> During the [[Second World War]] Ferrara was repeatedly bombed by Allied warplanes that targeted and destroyed railway links and industrial facilities. After the war, the industrial area in [[Pontelagoscuro]] was expanded to become a giant petrochemical compound operated by [[Edison (company)|Montecatini]] and other companies, that at its peak employed 7,000 workers and produced 20% of [[plastics]] in Italy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ferrara e il suo Petrolchimico il Lavoro e il Territorio Storia, Cultura e Proposta (in Italian)|date=2006|publisher=Cds Edizioni|location=Ferrara|isbn=978-88-95014-00-5}}</ref> In recent decades, as part of a general trend in Italy and Europe, Ferrara has come to rely more on tertiary and tourism, while the heavy industry, still present in the town, has been largely phased out.

After almost 450 years, [[2012 Northern Italy earthquakes|another earthquake]] struck Ferrara in May 2012 causing only limited damage to the historic buildings of the town and no victims.