Erected in 1338 on an existing construction, it was completely transformed in 1663 on commission of the duchess Laura Martinozzi to celebrate the obsequies of her husband and destine it as cemetery and pantheon for the Estense family.
This building, whose original gothic style can still be seen in its general structure and the external side, was then sumptuously decorated with stucco and paintings. The complex is a magniloquent expression of the aspirations of the House of Este, interweaving its earthly and divine glory. The ambitious iconographical decoration conceived by Jesuit Domenico Gamberti was executed by court artists, some of whom also worked at the palace in Sassuolo: Oliviero Dauphin, Sigismondo Caula, Francesco Strina and stucco artists Lattanzio Maschio and Giovanni Lazzoni.
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