Villa Contessa Massari and Ferrara: a history spanning centuries
Villa Contessa Massari was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when this territory did not yet belong to Italy, but to the Papal States.
Ferrara remained under the government of the Church for over two and a half centuries, from 1598 to 1859, with the sole exception of the Napoleonic period. Upon the death of the last Duke of Este without heirs, the Duchy was devolved to the Papal States. This long period left a profound mark on the economy and character of the territory: while other cities in Emilia developed and industrialized, Ferrara remained more closely tied to its agricultural roots and the administrative structure of the Church State.
The situation changed temporarily with the arrival of Napoleon. From 1796 to 1815, Ferrara became part of the Cispadane Republic, and later the Cisalpine Republic. It was Count Antonio Massari himself who signed the city’s annexation to the new political order. After the Restoration, Ferrara returned to papal control until 1859, the year it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and, subsequently, the Kingdom of Italy.
The Massari family: merchants, entrepreneurs, and protagonists of public life
The history of the Villa is closely linked to that of the Massari family, originally from Milan, who moved to Ferrara at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The first member to build a great fortune was Antonio Massari, born in 1738 to Francesco Massari, a merchant of small goods with two shops overlooking the Cathedral square. Antonio continued the family business alongside his brother, but simultaneously developed a profitable financial business based on credit and loans. This allowed him to accumulate significant economic resources, participate in public contracts, and establish relationships with influential Roman noble families.
With the arrival of Napoleon, he adhered to the new political order, and the Massari family began to hold prominent public offices. In 1796, Antonio represented Ferrara in the annexation to the Cispadane Republic and took part in the provisional government that introduced important reforms: the abolition of ecclesiastical courts, torture, and the Inquisition, the opening of the ghetto, and the extension of civil rights to the Jewish population.
His nephew Vincenzo Massari served as the Ferrarese ambassador to Paris. Antonio negotiated directly with Napoleon regarding the issue of the Valli di Comacchio, preferring to secure a lease rather than proceed with a purchase.
In 1799, with the return of the Austrians, he was imprisoned in Legnago. Once freed after the reconstitution of the Cisalpine Republic, he further expanded the family estate through the purchase of vast agricultural properties. In 1809, he was appointed Count and Senator of the Kingdom.
Even after the return of the Papal States, he demonstrated a remarkable capacity for political adaptation: in 1816, he received the appointment of Chamberlain of Sword and Cape from Pope Pius VII. He died in Ferrara in 1826.
Another prominent member of the family was Galeazzo Massari (1841-1902), a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy. He married the famous mezzo-soprano Maria Waldmann, an artist greatly admired by Giuseppe Verdi, who was a friend of the family and who, according to tradition, may have also stayed at the Villa.
The primary residence of the Massari family was Palazzo Massari in Ferrara, now a civic museum, along with the adjacent Parco Massari. The last representatives of the family were Cristina Massari, who lived in this Villa, and her sister, who married a member of the Ricasoli family and moved to the nearby Villa Massari-Ricasoli in Voghiera.
Ferrara and the Este family: five centuries of splendor
To truly understand the context of Villa Contessa Massari, it is necessary to look even further back in time.
The period of Ferrara’s greatest splendor coincided with the rule of the d’Este family, who governed the territory for nearly five centuries, from the Middle Ages until 1598. During this long period, Ferrara became one of the leading cultural capitals of Europe.
The Este family was one of the most powerful on the continent, comparable to the Medici of Florence or the Sforza of Milan, and boasted ties with the major European royal dynasties.
Some of the most important artists, architects, writers, and scientists of the Renaissance worked in Ferrara: Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Pisanello, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Mantegna, and Rogier van der Weyden, in addition to the great protagonists of the Ferrarese school such as Cosmè Tura, Ercole de’ Roberti, Francesco del Cossa, Dosso Dossi, and Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo. Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Paracelsus also left their mark here.
Among the most famous figures linked to the Este dynasty was Lucrezia Borgia, wife of Alfonso I d’Este.
In 1492, Ferrara also became a model for European urban planning thanks to the famous Addizione Erculea, the project that expanded the city with new straight streets and new walls, which are still perfectly preserved today.
Before the Este family: Roman Ferrara
Even before the Este era, this territory was part of the Roman world.
The locality of Ducentola, where the Villa stands today, owes its name to an ancient territorial organization of Roman origin. Other centers in the area, such as Cento and Trecenta, also preserve this same origin in their names.
Near the Villa lies Voghenza, the ancient Vicus Habentia, an important center of the Roman age and later a bishop’s see from 330 to 644 AD.
When the territory became insecure during the barbarian invasions, part of the population took refuge on a small island located along a branch of the Po River. From that settlement, Ferrara was born. This process bears certain similarities to the birth of Venice, which developed following the invasions that affected the Aquileia area.
A small archaeological park with evidence from the Roman era is still present in Voghenza. A tombstone dated 14 AD was found here with the inscription “Aulus Augustae Saltuarius”.
Aulus was the administrator of a vast agricultural estate belonging to the personal assets of Augustus. For this reason, it can be said, with a curious historical suggestion, that among the ancient owners of the lands on which the Villa stands today was Caesar Octavian Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
Even further back: the mystery of Spina
The history of this territory does not stop at the Roman era.
Long before, one of the most important Etruscan cities of the Adriatic existed here: Spina.
Ancient authors such as Thucydides and Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentioned it in their works, but for centuries its existence was considered almost legendary. No one was able to pinpoint its location.
The turning point came in 1922 when, during the reclamation of the Valli di Comacchio, a farmer unearthed an Etruscan tomb. Subsequent excavations led to the discovery of over 4,000 burials and, finally, the ancient city of Spina.
The city had been sought for centuries near the coast, without considering that over the millennia the shoreline had progressively shifted.
The artifacts found—vases, jewelry, tools, and everyday objects—were so numerous that they constitute one of the most important Etruscan collections in existence today. A significant part of this heritage is preserved in Ferrara, in the National Archaeological Museum housed in the Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro.
Spina began its decline in the 4th century BC, when Rome progressively favored Ravenna as the main port of the Adriatic.
A place that safeguards all these stories
Visiting Villa Contessa Massari means immersing oneself in a place that carries traces of all these eras: from the Etruscan and Roman legacy to the great Renaissance season of the Este family, through the history of the Massari family and the political transformations that have marked the Ferrarese territory.
A heritage made of people, places, and events that continues to live on today within the rooms of the Villa and in the landscape that surrounds it.
