Addizione Erculea

The Addizione Erculea or Erculean Addition is the area of urban expansion created in 1492 by the enlargement of the walled city limits of Ferrara, Italy.

The walled medieval city of Ferrara was geographically limited from southward expansion by a branch of the delta of the Po river.

In 1450, the prior Duke, Borso d'Este (1450) had enlarged slightly the city southward with reclaimed land from the river banks.

[1] However, Ercole d'Este had suffered from attacks and sieges from Venice to the north and the Papal states to the South.

Unlike the dense haphazard tracks of the medieval center, the Addizione created a main east-west road (analogous to a Decumanus Maximus) represented now by Corso Porta Po, Biagio Rosetti, and Porta Mare; and north-south street (analogous to a Cardo Maximus) represented by the now Corso Ercole I d'Este parting from the Castello.