In 1524, Father Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, stayed in Ferrara as a guest of the d’Este family. A few decades later, in 1551, the Ferrara Jesuit school was born, with a boarding school aimed at educating young people.
The church of the Society of Jesus, begun in 1570 to the design of Jesuit Giovanni Tristani, was finished ten years later and its consecration took place in 1599. The building site was that, already consecrated, of the pre-existing Oratorio delle Zitelle. The layout is typical of the Company, a single hall with communicating side chapels.
One of the chapels houses a valuable group of polychrome terracotta statues made by Guido Mazzoni: the Lamentation over the Dead Christ. The statues, two of which bear the likenesses of Hercules I d’Este and his wife, depict the deposition of Christ as the Gospels describe it.
