Casa Romei was built by the merchant Giovanni Romei around the middle of the 15th century, enlarged on the occasion of his marriage to Polissena d’Este. The two late Gothic courtyards, the floral decorations running along the walls of the loggias on the noble floor, the frescoes of the Hall of the Sibyls and the Prophets, the “Studiolo” and the late 15th-century painted partitions of Giovanni Romei’s apartment constitute a unique artistic body in Ferrara. The rooms on the first floor were adorned in the 16th century with grotesque decorations. The Hall of Honor bears the emblems of Ippolito II d’Este, when the house was part of the Corpus Domini convent complex. After the suppression of the convent, it was acquired by the State property in 1898. After a period of abandonment and extensive restorations, Casa Romei became a museum in 1953, hosting collections of frescoes detached from various suppressed churches in Ferrara such as Sant’Andrea and Santa Caterina Martire, as well as statues, tombstones, and other architectural decorations from city buildings.
