Ostellato

In the choir of the church there is a carved coat of arms that was the comune's for centuries, until 1863: three stars above and, below, a rounded shape that looks like a valley with small islands in it — which is exactly what this land was. Then another was cut on the great bell, and there the valley had turned into three bones: probably a play on words between bones — ostà in Greek — and the name of the village, with the stars left where they were. That version became official in the Napoleonic period and appeared for the first time on the banner in 1857, for the festivities of the visit of Pius IX.

Ostellato is in the delta of the Po, and for a long time people came here by water. Then the rails came: a steam tramway from Ferrara to Codigoro was opened in 1901 and in 1931 turned into a railway, and between 1911 and 1945 Ostellato was the western terminus of a second steam tramway, the one that ran to Porto Garibaldi, on the sea. Inside this comune there are four stations, in four different villages. Of those valleys that stood in the old arms a piece is left and protected: the Anse Vallive, a wildlife oasis inside the regional park of the Po delta.