Audioguide by eArs
Uguccione's Study
Located in the heart of Nonantola Tower, the lord of the castle used this cosy, intimate room as a study. The letter U, which is the initial of the name Uguccione, appears as a seal in splendid Gothic script on the keystone. The vault ribs still bear traces of the original laurel leaf decoration.If you concentrate, you can even imagine Uguccione in his buen retiro, consulting books and documents, or meditating or praying, always under the maternal gaze of the Madonna of humility, perhaps frescoed by the same artist of the works in the castle chapel above the east-facing window, where the sun rises. The other side of the study instead gave the castellano an unseen view of the courtyard below, while he could also keep an eye on those using the staircase leading to the first floor, which gave privileged access to the family rooms. Indeed as we all know, control is synonymous with power.Did you know that it can be said that Uguccione Contrari was literally 'sitting’ on his own fortune? A short staircase leads to the narrow room below, where the personal archive and treasure of the castellan, who boasted of being the richest man in 15th-century Ferrara, was kept.The use of this last vestibule changed over the centuries. The inscriptions praising partisans and freedom that are partly legible on the walls, written much later than the 15th century, are perhaps evidence of the use of these premises as a prison until the 1940s.
