The church of Santa Libera, the current site of the Lapidarium, was erected opposite Palazzo Schifanoia by Antonio Angelici in the 15th century for the Augustinian friars of the adjoining convent of Sant’Andrea. Used until 1596 as an oratory, it was then sold to the Guild of Masons, which provided for its restoration and embellishment. After the French invasion of 1796 the church was put to improper uses, becoming a warehouse, stable, workshop and finally a metallurgical workshop until 1979, when the municipal administration ordered its recovery and restoration to be used as Museo Lapidario.

The latter was established in 1735 by Marquis Ercole Bevilacqua, who donated a locally sourced Roman stele to the city to celebrate his re-election as Giudice dei Savi. The formation of the collection was accomplished between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with donations from Ferrara scholars and erudites, such as Girolamo Baruffaldi and Giuseppe Antenore Scalabrini, and was enriched by new archaeological discoveries and campaigns of detachments of the marbles reused in churches and monuments in and around the city.

Today, the Lapidarium preserves materials of different origins that constitute the main documentation of the Roman peopling of the Po Delta territory. It is mainly characterized by products of funerary handicrafts including stelae, cippi and sarcophagi, in which stylistic influences from the Veneto and Ravenna can be recognized. Of particular note among the stone materials is the stele of the physician Pupius (1st cent. AD), a freedman in charge of the emperor’s cult, and the large sarcophagus of the Aurelii (3rd cent. AD) found in 1713 in the archaeological area of Voghenza.