Horti della Fasanara, which in the past was a rural residence and a casino within what was once the pheasant hunting reserve of the Este nobles in Ferrara, is now a charming residence open to hospitality in which there are two souls.
Immersed in the countryside within the walls
The first is that of the area conceived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the architect Biagio Rossetti for the Dukes of Ferrara. The other, the contemporary, owes it to the Filia family who bought the historic building twelve years ago, transforming it into a luxury hotel surrounded by a park that extends for 10,000 square meters.
The house, with large windows overlooking the garden, is a small world out of this world and more than in the heart of the city of Ferrara and a few steps from the Estense Castle and the Palazzo dei Diamanti, it seems to be in the countryside.
To recover the past and project it into the present, the renovation of the nineteenth century building, signed by the architect Raffaele Patimo, was played on the double register of recovery and reconstruction. The selective restoration of the pre-existing architectural elements went hand in hand with the remodeling of the spaces in the forms and materials of the present.
The result is represented by environments in which the new and the old coexist lightly.
You can see it the large central hall, the heart of the project, where the low wooden ceiling has been preserved but the internal walls have been demolished allowing the view to extend to the garden through the large and bright English-style windows with wooden frames and stained glass windows divided into geometric panels.
The English style was not chosen by chance as Francesco, Elda’s brother who takes care of welcoming guests and with whom we pleasantly chatted about the history and present of the structure, has been living for years between London and Ferrara and many of the furniture that furnish Horti della Fasanara were purchased in the English capital.
The final impact? An orderly casualness that makes you feel at ease in any room of an elegant and refined home as well as ideal for travelers who like us appreciate beauty, tranquility and affordable luxury.
The six rooms are a tribute to Ludovico Ariosto and are named after the novel “Orlando Furioso”. In tune with the spirit of the place, the simplicity of the materials prevails together with refined furnishing details such as the four-poster beds but also touches of comfortable “modernity” including air conditioning, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, LED TV and piped music with the possibility of connecting a personal mp3 player.
Two double bedrooms are located on the ground floor and are called Orlando Furioso and Bradamante, while the four suites that occupy the first floor are distinguished between the Deluxe Rinaldo and Astolfo with mezzanine and living room, the Regal Angelica with balcony overlooking the front garden of the villa and the Presidential Medoro which includes 2 double bedrooms and a cozy lounge with balcony overlooking the rear garden.
They wanted to maintain continuity with the past but with a free reinterpretation of a building that expressed a history to be safeguarded and of which they tried to preserve as much as possible. In this sense, the choice of materials was very important and a fundamental role is that of the use of total white and glass that create a play of transparencies that “separate and reflect” the rooms as if they were one inside the other.
As in our suite, the large Presidential Medoro, which is a single large space that expands in height and consists of a welcoming living room on the ground floor together with a comfortable bathroom with relaxing chromotherapy and open shower and two double bedrooms and a another bathroom with bathtub on the second level.
The structure consists of a main body plus a barn which, when the dwelling was purchased was dilapidated, while now it looks like a fully glazed environment that acts as a filter between the inside and the outside and where you are happy to stop for breakfast or sitting on the comfortable sofas.
On the shelves, photos and exceptional memorabilia: Horti della Fasanara, in fact, in addition to being a comfortable and romantic boutique hotel, is also the prestigious headquarters of the “Michelangelo Antonioni” Association, the great Ferrara director buried in the nearby Certosa that often has wanted his hometown in his films and in his entire cinematic imagery.
The whole façade has been recovered leaving the bricks at sight and arriving it seems to you to arrive in an English cottage surrounded by greenery and a stone’s throw from the city center reachable with a short walk through what is called the “countryside within the walls”.
Elda and Francesco Filia gave me an immense gift without knowing it. As a teenager, one of the books I loved most was “The Garden of the Finzi Contini” by Giorgio Bassani, a writer from Ferrara buried in the nearby Jewish Cemetery. The surrounding wall from which the roses sprout and in which the entrance gate of Horti della Fasanara opens immediately brings to mind the one described by Bassani in his novel which surrounded the immense garden of the rich Jewish family of Ferrara where Micòl and Alberto played tennis with their friends, splendidly unaware of what would happen to them sometime after, before and during the Second World War.
But the beautiful Fasanara park promises much happier endings to those who choose it to stay like us or as a venue for events such as weddings, gala dinners, business meetings, receptions or simply to sip an aperitif in the light of a wonderful sunset like that which we witnessed the evening before leaving home.
Horti della Fasanara
Via delle Vigne, 34 – Ferrara
Info: +39 338 1543721
www.hortidellafasanara.com – info@hortidellafasanara.com
