The Modena Military Academy, one of the most important princely palaces of the 17th century, was built starting in 1634 on the site of the ancient Este castle, which in the Middle Ages stood on the edge of the city. Only following the expansion of the city walls commissioned by Duke Ercole did the castle come to occupy a symbolic position, between the medieval center of the town and the new, rectilinear quarters of the ducal capital. The work, initially entrusted to the architect Gaspare Vigarani, was later continued by Bartolomeo Avanzini; but it seems that the project underwent repeated modifications by Pietro da Cortona, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Francesco Borromini: practically all the great architects of the 17th century seem to have participated in the creation of a work that nevertheless reveals a unified style, a solemn and elegant Baroque.
