Palazzo San Crispino, Neoclassical palace in Ferrara, Italy

Palazzo San Crispino is a neoclassical building on Piazza Trento e Trieste that displays marble medallions across its facade. These medallions portray important figures from Ferrara, with a central portrait of poet Ludovico Ariosto as the focal point.

A popular tradition, not a documented fact, links the building to Charlemagne, who supposedly rewarded a shoemaker in 808. Records show it housed public schools of letters tied to the Studium of Ferrara until 1561, when a fire partly destroyed it. The shoemakers' guild then turned it into an oratory, and in 1567 the school moved to Palazzo Paradiso.

The name comes from Saints Crispin and Crispinian, shoemaker-missionaries from Rome martyred under Maximian; the oratory was dedicated to them and the name was even used for the square. From 1627 Jews of the ghetto were required to attend sermons in its rooms.

Today the space houses a bookshop and commercial areas after extensive renovations. The work carefully preserved medieval wooden ceilings and workshop elements that reflect the original craft heritage.

From 1627, when Ferrara's ghetto was set up, Jews were required to attend sermons in the rooms of this building. The sources record the obligation itself; they say nothing about separate entrances built for it.