Ferrara - Museo della Cattedrale

Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 when he captured the town from the Exarchate of Ravenna. Later the Franks, after routing the Lombards, presented Ferrara to the Papacy in 754. In 988 Ferrara was ceded by the Church to the House of Canossa, but at the death of Matilda of Tuscany in 1115, it became a free commune. During the 12th century, the history of the town was marked by the wrestling for power between the Guelph Adelardi and the Ghibelline Salinguerra families. The Ghibellines won and in 1264 Obizzo II d'Este was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598.

The museum is located in the former church of San Romano. Benedictine monks were already in the monastery of San Romano in the 10th century, but it was later given to the regular canons of Sant'Agostino.

Testa Della Vergine (Head of the Virgin) 1135 - 1150. The fragment was part of a large mosaic in the Cathedral of Ferrara created probably by a Byzantine artist.