Parco del Delta del Po

	Ostellato - Codigoro
	Ostellato
	The valley loops are residue, never completely been dried up for technical reasons, of the Valleys of Mezzano. It's territory is about 150 hectares and extends for 18 kms. between the Navigable Canal and the "Circondariale" Surrounding Canal, that is between Ostellato and S. Giovanni. In 1975 the Valley loops were established as Oasis of Protection of the Fauna by the Provincial Administration of Ferrara that still handles that naturalistic features, increasing the fish and wild fauna producing ,teaching and scientific activities. The characteristical "Casone di Valle" cane made huts for fisherman, have been restored and used as guest quarters for the naturalist, researchers, and photographers. They also have available a observatory tower.
	Codigoro
	Codigoro was founded in the Roman period, and was documented since the XI century, in relation to the role given by the Pomposian Abbots that developed commercial vocations linked to the fluvial transport. It's the oldest building in the historical center, that winds along the beautiful Riviera Cavallotti, is the House of the Bishop, a building going back in the XI century and then rebuilt in the 1700's ( Venetian styles).The enormous water scooping building that rules the land reclamation plants of the Polesine of Ferrara, is an area that has seen the first drainage interventions since the XV century. The most famous monument of the zone is the Abbey of Pomposa (6 kms. from Codigoro), that goes back since the VII-IX centuries enlarged and completed after 1000 A.D. The beautiful majolica decorations in oriental style, that decorate the front together with the ones in terracotta and symbolic animal sculptures. The inside,with three naves, is covered by magnificant 1300 A.D. frescos of the Bolognese school. The only things that survived in the Monastery are the "sala capitolare"School of Rimini frescos of the XIV cent.), the dormitory and refectory. In front ,there is the Palace of the Ragione, with double arcades where the Abbots managed the Justice. In the Civil historical architecture there are the "Casoni of Cannevié and Porticino (1500 A.D. fishing casoni still facing a splendid moist zones and recuperated for touristic reasons). The "Chiavica" a monumental water regulating building of Agrifoglio ( XVII Century), is the oldest hydraulic building of the Low Ferrarese, and the The Finance Tower (1700) building that guards the port was probably built by the ruins of a tower made at the end of the 1400's. The handmade building rose in the locality of Volano near the large pinewoods that became a Natural Reserve.
	The Abbey of Pomposa
	It's one of the most important monastery complexes in Italy, rose before the year 1000 A.D. on several emerging Valley banks between the Goro Po,Volano Po and the sea. The Benectine monks started in the VII cent. the construction of the church dedicated to Saint Mary, and later enlarged it by adding the dormitory,refectory and in the XI century, the Palace of Ragione and the steeple, 48 mts. high. The abbot exercised ecclesiastic and civil jurisdictions on the wide territory and the Abbey became a revelant cultural center, here Pier Damiani wrote and Guido Monaco before coming to Arezzo he invented the musical scale. The Abbey guests Popes and emperors, and even from those days had a famous library. In the XIV cent. Pomposa became less important because of the becoming of marsh of the surrounding valleys; less than two centuries later the monks transferred themselves in Ferrara. The church had been built with three naves, according to the classic Ravennate model. A Romanic atrium full of majolics, terracotta decorations and Byzantine style sculptures, were added in the XI cent. In the inside one can admire the Bolognese school frescos reproducing scenes of the New and Old Testament and Apocalypse and, in the apse basin, Christ with Angels and Saints a work of art made by Vitale from Bologna. In the "Sala Capitolare" one can see the Giotto's School frescos reproducing the Crucifixtion and Saints and in the refectory the Last Supper and the Miracle of St. Guido (the transformation of water into wine), probably the most important of the Riminese pictorial school. One can notice the mosaic pavements with the five point star with the writing "Pomposia". In the dormitory, above the "capitolo" chapter that can be reached by an inside stairway, there's a museum that gathers inscriptions, marbles, majolic and pieces of glass of common use. In the Palace of Ragione almost in front of the Abbey was in various times infringed and rehandled. The last restoration goes back since the first decades of this century. Not far, towards Volano there are the" Chiavica" monumental water regulating building of Agrifoglio ruins, one of the oldest handmade hydraulic buildings existing in the Delta and towards the East, the Water scooping machine of Balanzetta.
	The Bishop Palace
	Codigoro was the direct dominion of the Pomposian Abbots with one the administrative headquarters found here. The Bishop Palace was remade in a venetian style in the 1600's of a old building. It's located along the Volano Po, in the Riviera Cavallotti, in the center of the town. It's a cultural center with library, photographic displays and exhibition stands.The Oratory of Sant'Eurosia (XVII cent.) found nearby was recently restored by the Commune for the organization ofconventions and musical initiatives.
	The Canneviè Casone
	The Gafaro and Giralda valleys extend from Pomposa to the sea and from the Volano Po almost until the town of Bosco Mesola. In the land reclamation project drawn up in the second half of the 50's, already finished, had been conserved in their original functions the fishing stations of Cannevié and Porticino,with their "casoni" and service buildings inserted in a biotope of approx. 70 hectares. The Cannevié complex is formed by a firm center with a storehouse "barchessa" that was used to store materials, from the valley people's casoni and two huts for boat shelters a great part restored for the interventionof the Provincial Administration of Ferrara. Here one finds a restaurant with a hotel. The nearby casone of Porticino already existed in the XVI cent. demonstrated in the Alfonso II D'Este goods inventory. All the casoni can be easily reached by the Romea road, through the provincial road Pomposa-Volano and by the coastal localities going along the Acciaioli panoramic road.
	The Finance Tower
	The tower was made in the first years of the 1700's for the access control to the mouth of the Volano Po. The work was commissioned by the Pontifical State in a slightly inner zone in respect to the existing defenses until the half of the 1600's and destroyed by a sea storm.The building, square based, has a partial underground floor with outside walls. Originally inserted inside a star formed bank. It will have a FAI ( Italian environment fund) information center and a naturalistic observatory of the Provincial Administration. Another defensive tower made in the Pontificial period is visible in Port Garibaldi, found on the left of the port canal near the bridge of the Romea road. There's a trace of the Rossa Tower on the Salina canal in Comacchio.