anch of the Po and several canals. The principal stream does not
contribute to the life of the city or its suburbs, as it is several
miles distant. The town is surrounded by strong walls in which are four
gates. In addition to Castle Vecchio on the north, there was, in
Lucretia's time, another at the southwest--Castle Tealto or
Tedaldo--which was situated on one of the branches of the Po, and which
had a gate opening into the city and a pontoon bridge connecting it with
the suburb S. Giorgio. Lucretia had entered by this gate. Nothing is now
left of Castle Tedaldo, as it was razed at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, when the Pope, having driven out Alfonso's
successors, erected the new fortress.

Ferrara has a large public square, and regular streets with arcades. The
church, which faces the principal piazza, and which was consecrated in
the year 1135, is an imposing structure in the Lombardo-Gothic style.
Its high facade is divided in three parts and gabled, and it has three
rows of half Roman and half Gothic arches supported on columns. With its
ancient sculptures, black with time, it presents a strange appearance of
mediaeval originality and romance. In Ferrara there is now nothing else
so impressive on first sight as this church. It seems as if one of the
structures of Ariosto's fairy world had suddenly risen before us.
Opposite one side of the castle, the Palazzo del Ragione is still
standing, and there are also two old towers, one of which is called the
Rigobello. Opposite the facade was the Este palace in which Ercole
lived, and which Eugene IV occupied when he held the famous council in
Ferrara. In front of it rose the monuments of the two great princes of
the house of Este, Niccolo III and Borso. One is an equestrian statue,
the other a sitting figure; both were placed upon columns, and therefore
are small. The crumbling pillars by the entrance archway are still
standing, but the statues were destroyed in 1796.

The Este vied with the other princes and republics in building churches
and convents, of which Ferrara still possesses a large number. In the
year 1500 the most important were: S. Domenico, S. Francesco, S. Maria
in Vado, S. Antonio, S. Giorgio before the Porta Romana, the convent
Corpus Domini, and the Certosa. All have been restored more or less, and
although some of them are roomy and beautiful, none have any special
artistic individuality.

As early as the fifteenth century there were num