At
one time, where Viale Cavour is now located, a navigable canal flowed,
which linked the city to Pontelagoscuro, the Yacht with the name of the
family lineage of Pope Innocence X “Giambattista Pamphilii”. Still today
an underground ramification of the old canal exists, which feed the moat
of the Estense Castle. The work of closing and covering the canal began
after the unity of Italy had taken place, and simultaneously the
construction of elegant villas and buildings began. Therefore Viale
Cavour is an interesting example of the architectural versatility of the
early 20th-century, verifiable in the Fano Boari Villa, which is at
number 157, built in 1912 by the engineers Mazza and Barbantini like a
small castle halfway between neo-Gothic and Renaissance.
On the other side of the
street, at number 194, there is the Amalia Villa, erected in 1905 by
Ciro Contini, decorated by ceramics of Galileo Chini and, at number
184, the small Melchiori Villa, from 1904, also designed by Contini,
with plastering modelled by Arrigo Minerbi.
These buildings are
considered as the masterpieces of Ferrara Liberty.
