The palace was built in the late 1400s for Antonio Costabili, secretary and ambassador of
Ludovico Sforza known as the Moor, husband of Beatrice d’Este.
The project was commissioned from Biagio Rossetti, who was engaged in the Addizione Erculea and many
construction sites in the fermenting Ferrara of the Renaissance.
Already originally manifested as a
sumptuous residence, further enriched by the creation in 1503-06 of the frescoed ceiling
of the Sala del Tesoro, by Garofalo.
From the end of the 16th century, the Costabili family having died out, the palace began a series of changes of
ownership, until in 1920 the state purchased it to use as a museum for the
archaeological materials found in the Etruscan necropolis of Spina.
Since the 1990s, new restoration work has been carried out on the palace,
of the museum layout and the wonderful formal garden, which is still in progress.
