Welcome to the official website for Ferrara and its province

1 - Ferrara's City Walls

Telephone: +39 0532 209370
Fax: +39 0532 212266
E-mail: infotur@provincia.fe.it

From the Estense Castle and along Corso Ercole I d’Este, the route attains the northern walls of the city and climbs onto the tree-lined earthwork covering the curtain walls...

...9km of which embrace the historic centre of Ferrara and can only be followed by bicycle or on foot, either on the embankment or below in the moat. Bastions, towers, battlements, gates and passages unfold one after another, evidence of the diverse defensive techniques elaborated over the course of centuries. As well as this, immersed as they are in the green of trees and fields, the walls are today an enormous garden for the city, a place for rest and meetings.

After making the circuit of the walls, the route leaves from near the Porta degli Angeli to cross the Parco Urbano G. Bassani (park and playing fields) and goes as far as Francolino along the convenient cycle track (FE202-FE203), one of the greenways that lead from the city to explore its surroundings. Here it climbs onto the embankment of the Po. The river, yoked to the history of Ferrara and its development in the mediaeval era, is majestic: its embankment forms the 'Destra Po' cycle-tourism route. On the way back our route turns left along the embankment towards Pontelagoscuro to admire the nature reserves on the Isola Bianca, one of the oldest islands in the river.
At this point, to make the return to the castle, the journey descends the embankment to follow gravel tracks and other unmade roads back to the Parco Urbano in the shade of the walls.