Cattedrale di San Giorgio Martire

The Cattedrale di San Giorgio Martire is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio and the city's largest religious building, dedicated to Saint George, Ferrara's patron saint. Construction began around 1135 and continued through the 13th century, producing a Romanesque structure with early Gothic inflections on its three-tiered marble facade — an unusual synthesis for northern Italy. One of its most intriguing features is a deliberate axial deviation: the building's orientation is rotated 24° clockwise from true liturgical east, a quirk that has never been fully explained. Part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Ferrara, City of the Renaissance," the cathedral anchors the city's main piazza. Sculptural fragments from the original portal, removed during later restorations, are now displayed in the adjacent Museo della Cattedrale.