Medieval power
To discover medieval Genoa, there is nothing better than to stroll through the maze of caruggi (alleys) and squares. The piazza was the meeting place of all the powers, and was also used by the great aristocratic families as a place to showcase their power. Piazza San Matteo is the stronghold of the Doria family, a powerful family of shipowners and financiers, who built palaces and churches with facades made of alternating bands of black and white marble creating amazing chromatic effects. A polychromy that can also be found in the masterpiece of the Genoese Middle Ages: the cathedral of San Lorenzo. If its side doors have the sobriety of the Romanesque, the columns and colonnettes of its naves creating a double elevation are decidedly Gothic. The bell towers are also among the powerful witnesses of the Middle Ages. These bell towers, usually isolated from the church, are often octagonal in shape, such as the bell tower of the church of San Donato
, which was partly built with Roman columns. All these treasures were protected by a fortified enclosure of which the Porta Soprana is the most beautiful representative. See its two impressive round and crenellated towers. It was also during this period that the port of Genoa became more important. The sandy cove is transformed into a real port with a protective dike: the Molo Vecchio. Piazza Caricamento, where goods were loaded and unloaded, still preserves interesting remains from this period, such as the Porticos de la Ripa with its wide and low vaults.Liguria is rich in villages that have preserved their medieval charm. Noli with its superb Romanesque church of San Paragorio; Albenga and its Piazza San Michele with the most beautiful buildings of the city including the cathedral of San Michele with its beautiful Gothic bell tower and the Palazzo Comunale with its impressive loggia; Triora, perched at 776 meters high, with its gates and castles that testify to Genoa's role as a protective outpost, and Taggia with its convent of San Domenico, whose church is covered with superb Gothic paintings, are among these medieval treasures. Not to mention Portofino with its castle and the Chiesa di San Giorgio, which can be reached by walking through its cobbled streets and beautiful staircases.
But the most incredible witnesses of the Ligurian Middle Ages are without a doubt the villages of the Cinque Terre. It is here, in the heart of this rugged terrain, that the inhabitants have imagined masterpieces of agricultural engineering: the cian, vertical cultivations staggered in flat terraces supported by dry stone walls made of sandstone blocks filled with pebbles, called muretti a secco, stretching for nearly 7,000 km... while the coast is only 12! These terraces are also dotted with small stone huts, isolated or grouped together, serving as seasonal habitats during the harvest. A relief which also influenced the urbanism of these villages, whose sinuous lanes are lined with astonishing colored houses built with the same rock and whose accumulation creates a seizing impression. In the maze of alleys and lanes of Monterosso al Mare, you will discover the beautiful church of San Giovanni Battista with its two-tone façade and its powerful bell tower; in Vernazza, you will discover the very sober church of Santa Maria di Antiocha with its octagonal bell tower 40 meters high, and the Castello Doria with its circular tower; Corniglia will impress you with its Chiesa San Pietro and its superb Gothic marble rose window; Manarola invites you to discover the perfect alignment of its colorful houses; while Riomaggiore offers the view of the powerful silhouette of the two circular towers of its Riomaggiore castle. And don't miss the Via dei Santuari, a path that links the sanctuaries of each of the five villages built on the ridge as a symbol of devotion and protection. You will discover the sublime sobriety of the Santuario di Nostra Signora della Salute with its single nave in Manarola. The ridge is also dotted with watchtowers to protect its jewels from pirate attacks!Genoese Splendors
The Republic entrusted Galeazzo Alessi, a disciple of Michelangelo, with the modernization of the city's fortifications. The Porta Siberia is one of his masterpieces. It is also to this great figure of the Renaissance that we owe the sumptuous dome of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo and above all the incredible Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, whose beautiful dome and astonishing symmetry are said to have been inspired by Bramante's designs for St. Peter's in Rome. The architect was also responsible for the very first suburban villa in Liguria: Villa Giustiniani-Cambiaso, with its amazing cubic structure divided into three parts. On the outskirts, don't miss Villa Saluzzo-Bombrini designed by Andrea Vannone, who is responsible for another Renaissance masterpiece, the Loggia dei Mercanti, with its arcades of twin columns, its facade filled with mascarons and ornate bas-reliefs. Galeazzo Alessi also built many of the palaces along Via Garibaldi, formerly known as Strada Nuova. Broken through in 1551, this street testifies to the unprecedented power achieved by the Republic of Genoa. Financiers and shipowners competed with each other in splendor and audacity in palaces dedicated to their glory, such as Palazzo Lercari, Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino, or Palazzo Spinola. If each palace was adapted to the place and to the desires of its patrons, they all had common characteristics: 3 or 4 floors, majestic entrance halls with impressive staircases, large courtyards, loggias overlooking gardens often terraced because of the topography of the city, and great decorative richness in stucco and paintings. This splendor aroused all kinds of envy, including that of the government, which was determined to take advantage of it. This is how, in 1576, an edict established a list (rollo) of the most beautiful palaces likely to be able to welcome the distinguished guests of the Republic. The residences were divided into 3 categories according to their degree of splendor and splendor. Category 1 was for princes and cardinals, category 2 for governors and large landowners, and category 3 for ambassadors and other personalities. Once the category was determined according to the importance of the guest, a draw was held to allocate the residences... and all expenses were paid by the palace owners. A clever and thrifty government! A system that continued in the 17th century, the rich families continued to build the most sumptuous palaces, as shown by those of the new Via Balbi, with its baroque effervescence where the frescoes and trompe-l'oeil of the great Genoese masters are marvelous. The Royal Palace with its hall of mirrors and gilding is a beautiful example. Do not miss its gardens and ponds decorated with beautiful mosaics of pebbles. Called risseu, a name derived from the French word "ruisseau", this technique consists in creating astonishing mosaics with patterns from black, white and more rarely red pebbles collected in the neighboring rivers... Millions of pebbles and several years of work were necessary to realize only one of these masterpieces! These mosaics can be found in the Palazzo Bianco with its sumptuous hanging gardens, which forms with the Palazzo Rosso, with its incredible collection of paintings, the most famous of the city's palatial duos. Other Baroque masterpieces not to be missed include the Chiesa del Gesu
in Genoa with its marble inlaid floor and its dome from which the arms and legs of the figures painted by Giovanni Battista Carlone seem to emerge; or the Church of Santi Giacomo e Filippo in Taggia, whose plans are said to have been drawn by Bernini, the great master of the Baroque period nicknamed the "second Michelangelo". This decorative abundance is also found in the villages of the Ligurian coast with their high multi-story houses covered with colored plaster, themselves decorated with amazing trompe-l'oeil giving these modest houses the appearance of palaces (false balconies, niches for statues ...). Camogli is the most beautiful example. So many treasures that should continue to be protected by further strengthening the fortifications. In Genoa, the Parco Urbano delle Muro (Urban Park of the Walls) allows you to discover the forts and fortifications that were erected on the ridge to defend the city. These Mura Nuove protect a city whose port has become a real city within the city with its warehouses, shipyards and arsenals now secured by a new dike: the Molo Nuovo.Effervescent 19th century
The nineteenth century was the century of a great bourgeoisie that dreamed of one thing only: to have a more modern, more airy and more rational city, in other words a city that broke with the codes of the past. The Via Roma, paved with marble, and the Via XX Settembre, 850 meters long and lined with arcades, are the great representatives of this rectilinear and airy urbanism, but it will have been necessary to raze many neighborhoods, expropriate a certain number of inhabitants and even move a church in order to realize this project! These new arteries serving large central squares saw the appearance of new buildings mixing historicism and modernity. Thus, their facades borrowing from the Gothic, Renaissance or Baroque style cover structures for the first time entirely made of reinforced concrete, where all the modern comforts are deployed, with electricity in mind. Some of them also bear the mark of the Italian Art Nouveau called Liberty, with undulating forms inspired by nature. Gino Coppede, the great architect of the period, mischievously mixed borrowings from the past with innovative forms, as in the Villa Canali Gaslini. A style that can be found in the amazing elevators and funiculars that the municipality set up. The Ascensore Portello-Castelletto Levante is the most beautiful representative... originally, it was even lined with Liberty ceramics. This elevator leads to a unique area of Genoa, the Castelletto, which has been completely redesigned as a residential area and offers magnificent views of the city. Gino Coppede created the Castello Bruzzo, as a nod to the history of this ancient citadel. An eclecticism that can be found in the most fascinating place in Genoa: the Staglieno cemetery, a superb park containing treasures of funerary architecture and sculpture. This period also saw the development of seaside tourism. The Corso Italia, which is reminiscent of the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, saw the birth of eclectic and Liberty villas and sumptuous bathing establishments. Other seaside resorts also developed, such as Alassio, San Remo and Nervi, with their beautiful Liberty hotels, their sumptuous parks created from the fusion of the gardens of the Serra, Grapallo and Grimaldi villas, and their unusual Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi, a pretty promenade designed along the railroad line.
Modern and contemporary architecture
In the 1920s and 1930s, Genoa was marked by the interventions of Marcello Piacentini, a great representative of Fascist rationalism, combining rigor, monumentalism and borrowing from ancient codes. In 1923, he created the large Piazza della Vittoria, from which emerges the impressive Arch of Victory, a sort of triumphal arch with ornamented pillars sculpted with allegories. Built between 1937 and 1941, the Torre Piacentini, at 108 meters high, was the first skyscraper in the city . In the 1960s, driven by the prosperity of its industries, Genoa embarked on major urban planning projects, with an unfortunate impact, to say the least. It was at this time that the Sopraelevata, a gigantic highway on concrete piles, was built. A concreteization that also affects some tourist areas such as Rapallo, the largest resort of the Portofino Promontory. But already, some projects are making another voice heard, harmoniously dialoguing with the heritage of the past. In the 1960s, Riomaggiore became the new stronghold of the Argentine painter, muralist and sculptor Silvio Benedetto, who left his mark all over the city, as shown on the facades of the town hall and the train station. In the 1970s, in Genoa, architects and designers Franca Helg and Franco Albini transformed the cloisters of the Sant'Agostino church into the Museum of Ligurian Architecture and Sculpture.
As Genoa prepares to celebrate with great pomp the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, it entrusts Renzo Piano with the transformation of the Porto Antico. Under the pencil strokes of the man who defends an architecture based on the genius of the place and experimentation, the old port and its arsenals are transformed into a place for living and walking. By removing the port's perimeter fence, Renzo Piano has given the city direct access to the sea and revitalized a place that had lost some of its splendor since the relocation of the new port infrastructure to the west, from where Il Matitone, "the pencil", emerges. At 108.5 meters, it is the city's tallest building. Designed by the American agency SOM and the Italians Mario Lanata and Andrea Messina, the building, with its octagonal shape, is reminiscent of the city's bell towers... But let's go back to Porto Antico and the work of Renzo Piano. The architect designed the Bigo, an astonishing elevator that propels you 40 meters high like a ship's loading crane, and, above all, he designed some of the most beautiful structures of the city's Aquarium. He is responsible for the Biosphere, an astonishing glass and steel bubble, and the Cetacean Pavilion, a reinforced concrete parallelepiped 94 meters long, 28 meters wide and 23 meters high (10 of which are under the sea!). Although he lives and works in Paris, Renzo Piano, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize (the Nobel Prize for architecture), remains deeply attached to his native city. That's why he offered Genoa the design of the Genoa-St. George Viaduct, "a simple and direct bridge, but not ordinary, that looks like a ship moored in the valley, a bridge in clear and shiny steel, a sober bridge that respects the character of the Genoese". The 1,067-meter-long steel bridge carried by 43 luminous pillars is the architect's tribute to the 43 victims of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, which occurred on August 14, 2018, and which his Viaduct, inaugurated in 2020, will now replace. At the same time, the city continues its major restoration campaigns initiated in the early 2000s as Genoa prepared to become European Capital of Culture.
