Palazzo Massari was built starting from the last decade of the sixteenth century, by the will of Count Onofrio Bevilacqua, between the crossroads of the Angels, the fulcrum of Biagio Rossetti's ambitious urban project, and the ancient Piazza Nova, today Ariostea. During the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, the building was enlarged with the construction of the Palazzina Bianca, also called the Palazzina dei Cavalieri di Malta. In the same period, the gardens behind the palace were transformed into a park with Italian gardens and the Coffee house was built, a neoclassical building by the Ferrara architect Luigi Bertelli. After a few decades of neglect and spoliation following the Napoleonic conquests and the decline of the Bevilacqua family, in the aftermath of the Unification the building became the property of the Massari family. Sold by the heirs to the Municipality of Ferrara, since 1975 it has housed the Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries.