Ferrara Cathedral

Ferrara Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Ferrara is a compact city and the cathedral is at the centre of it, facing the town hall across a square and standing a minute from the castle with its moat. Entry to the church is free. The cathedral museum, housed in a deconsecrated church a short walk away, is ticketed and holds the original sculpture removed from the building, including a set of reliefs of the months and a celebrated Madonna by Jacopo della Quercia; for anyone interested in the carving, the museum matters more than the church.

Walking tours of the centre link the cathedral, the castle, the Jewish quarter and the Renaissance extension of the city, which is what earned Ferrara its UNESCO listing. Bicycle tours are the local speciality and cover far more ground, including the nine kilometres of walls. Check the current state of access before planning: restoration after the earthquakes of 2012 has kept parts of the building closed or scaffolded for long periods.

Visiting Ferrara Cathedral: what to see

Work began in 1135 and the main altar was consecrated in 1177, which by the standards of medieval cathedral building was quick. The west front is the reason to come. Its lower storey is Romanesque, white marble with three gabled bays, a deep porch carried on columns standing on crouching lions, and carving of great quality around the door. Above it the front changes to Gothic, with tiers of pointed loggias piled up to the gables, and the seam between the two campaigns is perfectly visible.

A Last Judgement in stone fills the upper porch, the damned handled with the usual medieval relish. Along the south flank runs a two-storey arcade of small shops, the Loggia dei Merciai, let to traders since the Middle Ages and still in use. The bell tower, in pink and white marble, was begun in the fifteenth century and never finished; it is often attributed to Leon Battista Alberti. The interior was rebuilt in the eighteenth century and is baroque throughout.

Ferrara Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Ferrara sits in the Po valley and the seasons are extreme: fog and damp cold from November to February, heavy heat in July and August, with spring and autumn clearly the best. The square in front is used for markets and for the Palio, held in late May and claimed as the oldest in Italy, with flag-throwing and races that fill the centre for weeks of preparation. The Buskers Festival in late August takes over every street.

Morning light is on the west front, which is when to photograph it. The church closes over lunch and the museum keeps different hours again, so the two need planning to combine. Ferrara is flat and almost everyone cycles, with rental cheap and plentiful, and the ride around the top of the walls is the single best thing to do in the city after the cathedral and the castle. Allow half a day for all of it.