Charterhouse of Ferrara

The Ferrara Charterhouse holds a unique place among Ferrara’s vast range of monuments. It’s a place where memories of the past, masterpieces of sacred art, and traces of the relationship between the city and the community lie enshrined, shrouded in silence, and enveloped in an atmosphere of peaceful meditation.

Visiting the Charterhouse means delving into the deepest recesses of Ferrara’s history of sculpture, architecture and urbanism.

The Charterhouse, built by Borso d’Este in 1461, was transformed into a monumental cemetery at the beginning of the 1800s and conserves important sculptures.

Visitors are welcomed by two long arcades almost forming a semicircle. The complex is dominated by the St. Christopher’s Church, started in 1498 and attributed to Biagio Rossetti. The façade is unfinished. The interior of the church has a single nave that is wide and full of light with six chapels on each side and a deep presbyterial area with anapse. 

The ancient church used as a cell vinaria by the monks, then, stables in the Napoleonic age, was demolished with most of the factories adjacent in the Second decade of the nineteenth century, in the cemetery renovation. Only the grand Claustro and partially the ancient cell of the prior (Camerone Bonaccioli) are still extant. The conventual structure, described here, was added a little further north, starting from 1501, the building of the new church.

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