Este Fortress

Corso Umberto I, 22 - 42018 San Martino in Rio

Estense fortress - Municipality of San Martino in Rio
Emilia Romagna Castles - San Martino in Rio

Opening times

Monday-Friday: 9.00 a.m. - 12.00 (upon reservation only).
Saturday: 9.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. (free entrance)
Sunday and holidays: 9.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. and 3.00 - 6.30 p.m. (3.30 - 7.00 p.m., daylight saving time).
August 2023: Monday-Friday 9.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. (upon reservation); Saturday 9.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.; closed Sunday and August 15. Guided tours of the Este Fortress from September.

 

Entrance fees

Unguided tours: free entrance.
Guided tours (Fortress + entrance in the Agriculture and Rural World Museum): Sunday and holidays with start at 10.00, 11.15 a.m., 4.00 and 5.30 p.m.

Euros 5.00 - full fee
Euros 3.00 - reduced fee (children aged 12-18, university students, people over 65 and groups exceeding 10 people)
Free - children under 12, disabled and their helpers

How to get there

See the indication to reach San Martino in Rio or see the map above.

Historical notes

The San Martino in Rio Fortress is the centre of the town's cultural activity. A recent restoration has enhanced the interesting Renaissance frescoes. The Fortress houses one of the most important ethnographic museums of the region, dedicated to agriculture and traditional artisan professions, separated into different thematic sections (hemp fibre arts, textiles and weaving, milling, and dairy production.) As the property of the Canossa family, the fortress suffered destruction at the hands of (among others) Federico Barbarossa and various reconstructions before arriving at its current appearance, partially dated to the fifteenth century. It passed into the hands of Roberto di Reggio, since 1501 a marquis of the Este family and then, in the second half of the eighteenth century, to the Rango D’Aragona nobles. The rectangular structure still has one intact square tower, with Ghibelline battlements and a defensive apparatus including machicolations. In the interior, the most distinctive and representative surroundings are found in the chapel of San Giovanni with its ogival arches (fifteenth century) and in several rooms of the aristocratic apartments containing large painted chests, frescoes and stuccoes from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, and where the library is housed.