FERRARA, a city of Italy, at the head of a circondario and province of the same name, is situated in a flat alluvial district at the junction of the Po di Volano with several minor branches of the complex water-system of lower Lombardy. At the times of greatest inundation the river rises about 7 or 8 feet above the level of the castle court, but the statement that it sometimes even reaches above the level of the roofs is an exaggeration, and the city affords an asylum to the people of the surrounding country when the district is under water. The distance from Bologna by rail is about 29 miles, and from Venice 70. As it long occupied an important strategical position as a frontier post of the papal states, Ferrara is strongly fortified by walls, bastions, ditches, and a pentagonal citadel. Within the circuit of its defences, which extend for nearly 5 miles, a large part of the area is unoccupied. In the very centre of the city stands the old ducal castle or palace, surrounded by a moat, and crowned with heavy machicolations and battlements. During the papal period it was the residence of the legate, and it is now the seat of the local authorities. The cathedral of San Paolo is a large building originally dating from the 12th century, but gutted and restored in the 17th. The west front, of which a view is given in Mr Street’s Brick and Marble Architecture, is a great screen with “three gables of about equal height covered with arcading, which increases in depth and richness of moulding and shadow to the top, where there are very fine open arched galleries.” Of the other churches it is sufficient to mention S. Francesco, S. Benedetto, S. Domenico, and S. Maria del Vado, which contain paintings by Garofalo, Dosso Dossi, Bonone, and other native artists. The palaces ...