Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate

The church has been built in the early 15th century (1410) by the friars of Vienne, the French town where the remains of the saint had been transported from the East in the 11th century. Conceived in ogival style, it is characterized in its interior by a beautiful game of the rib vaults, ribs and keystones and is therefore one of the most significant and particular sacred buildings of Ferrara's architecture of the 15th century. It has been restored and modified in 1584 and in 1796 suppressed like many other churches in the cities during the period of French domination. Reconsecrated in 1864, two years later it has been restored thanks to an intervention that changed both the appearance of the external facade (by the architect Antonio Tosi Foschini in a neo-Gothic style which is excessively flowery as it was characterised by numerous terracotta elements) and several parts of the interior (by local artists). Only the choir, dated to the original conception of the construction, has not been changed. The side of the church on the corner between via Saraceno and via Cavedone, preserves a shrine or chapel in which a crucifixion has been painted. This is a work of Francesco Robbio and in 2000 has been restored. In the summer of 1966, some of the terracotta elements that decorated the facade of the church fallen down, threatening to hit a girl who was about to enter the church. The city administration and the firefighters were thus forced to detach all the unstable terracotta tiles and in particular all the decorations of the three arches above the central rose window. In this holy place, the blessing of the pets took place every January 17th.