Castello Estense - Este Castle

Buongiorno tutti!

PL Bridgette here to give you another update! Yesterday, we all went to visit Castello Estense, which is a moated medieval castle located in the center of Ferrara. This castle was the home of the Este family who ruled Ferrara between the 13th and 16th century. Their motto in latin was: Ab insomni non custodita dracone. "The devil is tireless"- in other words they were a powerful family that was not to be messed with!

One of the most interesting places we visited in the castle were the dungeons. These dungeons weren't for the "regular" citizens of Ferrara - but for the rich and powerful members of the community, including even their own family at times. We heard a infamous story of two unfortunate lovers who were imprisoned and eventually beheaded for their indiscretions- Ugo and Parisina. Ugo d'Este was the son of the Marquess of Ferrara, Niccolò d'Este, and Parisina Malatesta was Niccolò's wife. Yes, you read that correctly- Parisina was Ugo's step-mother and lover. As gross as that sounds to us- Ugo was actually only one year her junior, in comparison to her husband who was more than 20 years her senior. Of course Parisina also did not marry Niccolò for love, but rather out of duty. Given these very different periodical differences - it makes more sense that she could fall in love with someone closer to her age and out of her own free will.

As fate would have it however, the affair was discoved and Ugo and Parisina were imprisoned and quickly executed, much to the horror of the people of Ferrara. We had a chance to visit the prison cell of both Ugo and Parisina! It was scary to imagine them alone in the dark, knowing their fate for carrying out their doomed love affair.

Arrivederci!

-PL Bridgette