Among Ferrara’s monuments, this palace is the one most exposed to the enigma of its birth.
Bruno Zevi attributed it to Biagio Rossetti on the basis of stylistic similarities. From 1509, the year of its completion, to 1700 the palace belonged to the Magnanini family, then they were succeeded by the Roverella family, making some significant changes to the original layout. In 1869 some rooms were rented to the Shopkeepers’ Circle, which restored the decorative apparatus. In the 1920s a major urban plan, the so-called Addizione Novecentista, involved the palace block, surrounded at the time by the buildings of the old Sant’Anna Hospital. This was almost completely demolished to build a new neighborhood in the rationalist style. The entire side facade of Palazzo Roverella dates from those years. The Shopkeepers’ Circle has spanned more than 150 years of the palace’s history and is still popular today.
