Castrum bizantino di Ferrara

The Castello dei Curtensi — also known as Castello dei Cortesi — was the Byzantine castrum that served as the first fortified nucleus of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region during the early Middle Ages. It formed the original urban core from which the city gradually expanded through later medieval and Renaissance building phases. The structure no longer survives as a standing monument; it is primarily known as a historical reference point in the study of Ferrara's urban origins. Its precise footprint remains only partially established through archaeological research, making it a subject of interest mainly for historians of early medieval Italian urbanism.