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Hall of Honour, Palazzo Tassoni Estense
Photo from the Unife E-Learning and Multimedia Services Office
Palazzo Tassoni is a complex of buildings between the present-day Ghiara, Quartieri, Baluardi and Chiodare streets. The palace is built near the castrum, the original centre of the city of Ferrara, which dates back to the 7th century AD. Built in 1482 for the chamberlain of Ercole I d'Este, in 1492 Count Giulio Estense Tassoni moved there and had modifications made by Biagio Rossetti. The palace was the residence of the Tassoni family until 1847, when the male line died out.
In 1853, the psychiatric ward at Sant'Anna Hospital was deemed inadequate, and Palazzo Tassoni was chosen to become the provincial Asylum in 1858. From 1945, the complex was used as a sanatorium for those wounded in the war, and then continued as an institution for the mentally ill until 1978, when the Basaglia Reform forced all asylums to close. In 1991 the restoration of the palace on Via Quartieri was completed, becoming the seat of the new Faculty of Architecture.
The entrance on Via Ghiara formed by the ancient main doorway in decorated white marble; the staircase leading to the upper floor only preserves half of its original 16th century features, and on the first floor is the Hall of Honour which housed the library of the former mental asylum: the doors to this space are valuable artefacts of 17th-18th century origin.
The palace houses the Architecture Library which is the location of the Carlo Savonuzzi Archival Collection.
To find out more
Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, Basel, Michael Isengrin, 1542 (Recreation of the illustration). Historical Collection of the Literature and Philosophy Library
This location is part of the permanent cultural tour Stories of books and palaces. Tours of the Unife libraries from the University Library System. (Tour guide.pdf)
Cultural events
26-30 October 2019 - Open Monuments: Places of care, through the documents in the Carlo Savonuzzi Collection, Palazzo Tassoni Estense
11-12 May 2019 - Interno Verde: the garden of Palazzo Tassoni Estense
26-27 October 2018 - Open Monuments: exhibition with panels from the Savonuzzi Collection atEx-MOF
Guided tours
Virtual Tours
Audiovisual
Reading room, Architecture Library
Palazzo Tassoni Estense
Photo from the Unife E-Learning and Multimedia Services Office
Palazzo Tassoni Estense
Via Ghiara, 36
44121 Ferrara
Accessibility
Consult the maps of the ground floor and the first floor (from Via Quartieri), and for more information, visit the page for Accessibility of buildings.