History
Mediaeval period
The most significant feature of the historic centre of Genoa is the persistfig ence of the mediaeval settlement pattern.
Although over the centuries it has undergone a general process of upward
building and amalgamation, the original pattern is still recognisable in the spacing
of the building plots and the architectural character of the buildings.
The natural environment of Genoa is very distinctive: it forms an amphitheatre
around the port, about which the dwellings are arranged.
It is surrounded by successive circles of walls but the general layout was broadly
defined in the mediaeval period.
The fortified hill of Castello protected the first settlement, which developed at its
foot, within an urban territory which stretched, in accordance with the conventional
Roman reckoning of the mille passus or thousand paces which separate
urban from rural properties, from the S. Michele ditch to the banks of the
Bisagno torrent. The road network did not cross the settlement but
was located outside.
The area to the south of Via S. Lorenzo is the oldest part of the historic city
enclosed by the first circle of walls in the 9th century, built as part of the defensive
strategy of the Carolingian kingdom against Saracen incursions: in this period
the new cathedral was transferred to S. Lorenzo from S. Siro, now located
outside the walls.
The streets Via Canneto il Lungo, Via Giustiniani and Via S. Bernardo connected two strategic locations, Piazza S. Giorgio, site of the market and the first court, and the Porta Soprana, the way out of the city towards the national road network (the Roman Via Aurelia).
Genoa in the 12th Century
Between the building of the first ring of walls (9th century) and the construction of the second set (12th century), and in connection with the new needs of an emergent class, the urban settlement pattern changed, from a stronghold city around the fortified castle with its main axis perpendicular to the sea, to a settlement along the shoreline facing the sea, integrated with the first rudimentary port infrastructure in timber (Genova nel XII secolo, in L. Grossi Bianchi - E. Poleggi, Una città portuale…, cit.).
On the institutional level during this period there was the formation of the Comune (1099), while Genoa acquired great commercial influence over the Mediterranean area. The new magistratures of the Comune exercised a monitoring action over changes in the building pattern, to safeguard the system of public routes and the functionality of the harbour basin, developing rules of collective management which may be considered the expression of an early and peculiar urban culture.
The Ripa
One of the first and most original expressions of this is the building of the Ripa, the city’s frontage to the sea, for which the Consular Ordinances (1133-34) specified measurements, construction methods and uses, in order to maintain control of a collective infrastructure which was indispensable for mercantile traffic. The construction was made self-financing by concessions to private individuals to build above the colonnade, and the Comune was assured of a constant income from renting out the commercial spaces (La Ripa da S. Marcellino al Molo in L. Grossi Bianchi - E. Poleggi, Una città portuale…, cit.).
This is not just a simple colonnade like many that were built during this period in cities governed by Comuni but a proper public infrastructure, which at one and the same time provides commercial services and acts as a mooring berth for people being transferred from vessels anchored off the coast.
The Ripa soon became one of the liveliest places in the city, where everyday trade connected with the port was carried on, an important place for collective socialising in a city which did not possess major public squares, and the frontage of a settlement which could be seen in its entirety only from the sea, and which impressed itself upon the minds of travellers by its uniformity. The construction in the 12th century of the new circle of walls, with a perimeter four times the existing, to act as a defence against the threat of Barbarossa descending on the city, was the culmination of an intensive period of public works.
13th Century
In the 13th century, very significant works were carried out in the port areas, to respond to the ever-incresing needs of a flourishing commercial port. These works included the extension of the Molo, the water supply pipe, the Darsena (dock), and the Arsenale (naval shipyard). These works concluded symbolically with the with the costruction of the first palazzo of the Comune (Palazzo S. Giorgio), at the centre of gravity of the city, to emphasise that it had reached completion. The Palazzo was to become the site of the Banco di S. Giorgio, the financial management structure of the Republic of Genoa, governed by a nobility which, having grown rich from maritime commerce, possessed outstanding mercantile skills and technological knowledge. During the same period the first nucleus was built of the palazzo of the Comune near the Cathedral (Palazzo Ducale).
The commercial network specialised, establishing itself along the coastal route which began from the Porta dei Vacca, passed the Banchi and S. Giorgio markets, and continued on its way to leave the city for S. Bernardo through the Porta Soprana. The third great urban market was that of Soziglia, on the street going out of the city towards the east, in an area where there were also less valuable commercial and artisan buildings (Macelli or slaughterhouses). In the great markets, the goods first underwent an inspection for tax purposes, and were then taken away towards the private commercial areas controlled by the great family alliances. The commercial and artisan structure was diffused throughout the city. The majority even of the noble buildings had rooms on the ground floor devoted to mercantile activity, even though there were legislative provisions governing particular processes, which because of the availability of sources of energy and to enable control by the Guilds were located in peripheral areas (for example activities connected with the sea, and the foundries, at the Molo, and dirty trades such as the dye-works and the tanneries in more outlying areas).
In parallel with the privatisation of spaces, the political structure became specialised, with the institution of the perpetual dogeship by Simone Boccanegra (1339), and the technical structure also specialised, with the magistracy of the Padri del Comune (1399), which supervised the control both of the port apparatus and the urban administration of the city. These magistrates were chosen by election from among the nobility. Their number was variable (from four to six), and they served without pay. In time, the magistracy came to specialise in problems connected with urban and port development.
Mediaeval architecture
In mediaeval Genoese architecture, some peculiar elements are recognisable,
which are due to the common cultural reference points of clients and craftsmen,
such as the separation between the commercial and the living areas on the upper
floors. The noble class resided in buildings featuring a colonnade on the ground
floor; above that was the piano nobile, with the great hall in which the family
lived (caminata), and above that again were at least two levels of bedrooms and
the kitchen, to reduce the risk of fires, which were fairly frequent in the early
mediaeval period when the majority of houses were made of timber.
From the technological point of view, it was common for the loadbearing structure
in the foundations and at the level of the colonnade to be in stone. A local
stone was used, a dark grey marl limestone, with squared ashlar blocks laid in
rows, with lime joints. On the upper floors the stone was replaced by brick.
Among the characteristic decorative elements, some of the most notable are the
use of bichrome stonework, mullioned windows and pendant arches, while architectural
expressiveness is reserved for the treatment of the colonnade, with progressive
refinement and updating of the architectural references. This was due to
the skills of the Maestri Antelami, a guild of Lombard master-craftsmen who for
centuries had retained their character as a foreign colony, with a particular speciality
in carpentry, including naval carpentry. Although the mediaeval city did
not have a rigid separation by class, it was made up on a morphological level of
various zones: the outlying zone of monastic settlements which occupied vast
areas, mixed with cultivated land and out-of-town villas; the dwellings of the
lower classes, which originated on long, narrow strips of land and city blocks, in
which small building units jostled each other in regular modules; the noble residences
in the central areas, where the social groupings of the Alberghi corresponded
to building clusters with a morphological independence of layout, the
result of a long and complex process of appropriation of territory between the
different noble groups which was carried on like a game of chess.
Behind the immediate urban frontage of the Ripa, the great suburban road
scheme is grafted onto a system laid out like the teeth of a comb with its long
axis (carrubeus rectus) along the coast, and the principal roads coming off it at
right angles to the sea, except in the areas of la Maddalena (the ancient Roman
“strata” or paved road), Luccoli and S. Bernardo where the roads exit through
the principal city gates.
The “Alberghi”
The road system twists back on itself in the city blocks and private spaces, favouring the clustering of building units and the adaptation of the distribution of the blocks to meet the various functional needs. Within the urban scheme of principal roads, in fact, we find buildings grouped into urban units each one of which was a curia or contrada controlled by one of the various noble families, thus reproducing on the ground a social organisation of family alliances (Alberghi), whose members assume the same surname.
This peculiar demo-topographic structure, characterised
by the coresidence of the members of the Albergo around the domus magna of the head of the clan, gives rise to a system of settlements in closed districts in which the common services are also located (well, baths, oven, patrician church), genuine
strongholds defended by towers and closable with gates during periods of political crisis.
In this way, a tight control was maintained on
urbanisation, according to logic internal to the
individual clan, and we find this in evidence around the structures built for
storage and distribution of goods, the fondaci, which are the true centres of
these residential systems and component parts of the urban form. Around them
stand the warehouses or voltae, so called because of their vaulted roofs. They
are typologically independent of the surrounding buildings.
The most important houses are connected to the public streets by means of
arcades, connecting structures between the public part, in which business is
carried on, and the private parts of the dwelling: the principal arcade of the
Albergo, the headquarters of the clan, is called the loggia, and carries the
insignia of the noble family, and this is where the official ceremonies of the
Albergo are performed.
Transformation of the mediaeval settlements
In parallel with the systematisation of the social structure of the Alberghi, the
first processes were instigated of transforming the compact mediaeval settlements,
in an attempt to adapt them to new spatial and architectural needs. By
means of amalgamating existing buildings, the first palazzi were built, with a
new spatial articulation, introducing open
internal environments, such as colonnaded
courtyards, and developing the system of the
staircase, which up to then had been only
functional, with larger dimensions, and more
desirable architectural structures.
The architectural models are to be sought in
Lombardy and Tuscany, but with solutions adapted to the peculiar Genoese situation: the courtyard in a corner position which opens up
space, often taking in sections of adjoining streets; the central courtyard with columns to form a sequence of spaces on an axis with
the street; the continuity of the distributive schemes with the gardens to the
rear, exploiting the differences of level in the terrain. (Case Gentile a S. Siro, un caso esemplare di stratificazione con domus magna e casupole: in L. Grossi Bianchi – E. Poleggi, Una città portuale…, cit…).
La città degli Alberghi
In the 14th century the growth processes appear to stop: a new city wall was
built, especially to meet political needs arising from the struggle between the
various factions (Guelfs and Ghibellines), while the old wall was not demolished
immediately but came to form part of the defensive system of the clans.
The new walls enclosed the eastern suburb of S. Stefano and the western suburb
of S. Tommaso, and established a perimeter for the city that would remain
definitive until the formation of the city of the industrial period.
At the close of the mediaeval period, therefore, although the city was awakening
to new architectural experiments, which involved several urban districts, it
was still locked within the closed spaces of the noble clans. (Genova nel secolo XV, in L. Grossi Bianchi - E. Poleggi, Una città portuale…, cit.).
On the evidence from a cadastral source, the registers for the Gabella
Possessionum of 1414, a direct tax applied to immovable property in the 15th
century, it has been possible to reconstruct a complete and ordered picture of
the property situation. The picture which emerges shows how compact but farreaching
the Albergo system was in the local area. The Alberghi possessed
extensive areas of the city in the most important locations (Gli insediamenti nobiliari nelle aree centrali al 1414 in L. Grossi Bianchi – E. Poleggi, Una città portuale…, cit…)..
In 1414, the layout of real estate in the historic city reached an extraordinary
stage of completeness and equilibrium: it was however an unstable equilibrium
in view of the civil wars and mutable alliances which the city was going through.
At the end of the century indeed there were already other mechanisms in motion
which would lead to the next phase of the lordly city between Renaissance and
Baroque, which led to the loosening of the grip of the organised power groups,
and of the physical control and defence of the ancient contrade.
16th Century
In sixteenth-century Genoa, people were becoming open to the suggestions in the theorising by the treatise-writers and to Mannerist culture, which discussed the theme of the enlargement of the city with plans for renewal based on unitary monumental architecture, in the shape of rectilinear axes forming the design of a new urban space.
However, the first demands were emerging for new and broader urban spaces, proportioned for a perspective reading of the architecture, perfecting the relationship between building type and urban morphology, with solutions such as new public squares, which had never existed in Genoa, or rectilinear streets to align the palazzi. A new relationship was being born between architecture and environment: the new types were explicable in terms of inputs of knowledge from beyond the local culture, more sophisticated, correlatable with the cultural calibre of a cosmopolitan clientele, capable of regenerating the image of the city
It was therefore in the 16th century that important architectural innovations
emerged, in parallel with the development of the role that the Genoese
Republic was assuming at European level: a singular role as inescapable channel
for the flows of finance which supported the Spanish crown. This process
made it possible to overcome the urban conditioning of such a complex and
closed model, as well as the age-old attachment to the ancestral houses and the
centres of mercantile activity.
The new constitutions of 1528, promulgated by Andrea Doria, laid the basis for
a more stable dominion of the aristocracy, against the danger of a popular
seizure of governing power. An innovative layout was created for the great private
residences, under the stimulus of the seizure of power by Andrea Doria,
who created at Fassolo a great palazzo, introducing to local culture the decorative
models of the Roman Renaissance.
The term ‘nobility’ assumed a legal and political significance as the official designation
of the governing oligarchy, made up of the most distinguished families
(both old nobles and the new ones of popular ancestry). Access to public office
was reserved for nobles, while the institution of the Alberghi was retained
(though their number was reduced to 28: 23 noble and 5 popular). This exercised
a check on new enrolments in the nobility, since each new noble must first be received into an Albergo and take its name. There was also a property
requirement of at least six houses open in the city, which provides a useful
explanation for the strong investment in building
El siglo de los genoveses
The 28 families who gave their name to the Alberghi remained stable even after 1576, when the institution was abolished in an attempt to pacify the frequent quarrels between old and new nobles. Family wealth, often accumulated over several generations, was fed by profitable economic activities: commercial dealings, hiring of galleys, industrial monopolies, banking activities and loans. As a result, the residences became images of the greatness of the family, but also, on a practical level, suitable premises for the performance of sumptuous ceremonials pertaining to the functions of government and of state entertainment.
The enormous accumulation of private wealth, which for generations had been
fed by profitable economic activities (trading, commercial and industrial
monopolies, banking activities), was matched by the desire of a group of aristocrats
who controlled the city to display this wealth. The palazzi are monuments
that bear witness to the siglo de los Genoveses (1536-1640), a century in
which lifestyle and tradition required suitable premises for hosting sumptuous
ceremonial occasions connected with government functions and with entertaining.
From these assumptions, and also from a centuries-old culture of managing the
city by the Padri del Comune, with regard to tried and tested juridical procedures
and practices, was born the spectacular result of Strada Nuova.
Strada Nuova
Strada Nuova, which had been undertaken at the instigation of five leading families
(1558-83), on a rectilinear site 250 metres in length, constituted an interpretation
of growing authenticity, and was repeated, with audacious innovations,
in the medieval city. Everywhere, the connections of a very modern style of distribution,
eschewing the usual functional verticality, link the levels with a light
touch, and at the same time surfaces are put in place which create sweeping perspectives;
often a screen of slender columns conceals a large or a small
nymphaeum, with a unique transparency that will stay in the visitor’s mind.
The scheme for the street was approved by a resolution of March 1550, the
magistrates charged with accomplishing the task were nominated, and a complex
of legal and practical procedures was set in train: the expropriations, the
estimates, the auctions, the improvement taxes, the contract for the works
which the Comune was to undertake, the technical checks.
On the basis of a
ground-plan, and of a regulation of implementation which established various
facilities for the buyers of the lots (a supply of stones and water, and connection
to the public water supply), and also of an estimate for the land to be
expropriated, the order was given for the demolitions to begin. This operation,
which affected about twenty houses and gardens, besides the brothel, did not
cost much, because these were poor buildings, in a lower-class suburb.
The order was then given immediately for the building works, under the head
of works, Bernardo Cantone. The works were suspended between 1552 and
1558, during the period of the Corsican war, then resumed and continued until
the end of the decade, although the final paving was not executed until 1591.
The public auctions for the building plots envisaged by the model took place
in 1551, 1558-59, and 1561-62. All the purchasers of the first lot were acting
from speculative motives, reselling the areas at much higher prices several years
later, while the buyers for the second lot were buying for themselves at fancy
prices. The operation was carefully managed by the Padri del Comune, and
concluded heavily in profit for the public treasury, also because of the imposition
of an improvement tax on the surrounding houses.
Strada Nuova is therefore the political affirmation of a new governing class.
The Rolli palaces
The palazzi of Strada Nuova provided a stimulus for building large palazzi in the
closed mediaeval streets at the expense of lesser buildings: the built heritage
underwent an intense stylistic renewal which in some cases involved only the
façade, with the insertion of sophisticated decorative devices, or the complete
restructuring of the entire building itself, by means of expansion over the adjoining
buildings. The spread of palazzi into the historic fabric of the city along the
principal axes, which prefigures a true residential system and imposes a new hierarchy
on the nodes of the old city, receives formal official recognition with the
enrolment of the palazzi, divided into categories according to their architectural
quality and impressiveness for entertaining, in the registers for public hospitality
(Rolli, 1576). This gives us a valuable indication of the spread and the quality of
the palazzi themselves.
The most prestigious palazzi, enrolled in the first category of the Rolli, are
located in Via Lomellini, in Strada Nuova and in the area of the Doria in S.
Matteo, while Luccoli grows stronger as a barycentric axis.
The urban modification interventions carried out on private initiatives were
made with approximate references to Renaissance spatial ideology, adapted to
pre-existing situations, sharing out the improvement taxes on the adjoining
properties, as in the widening of Piazza Soziglia and Piazza Campetto and joining
them by demolishing the block of houses which separated them.
Nuove opere pubbliche
In the meantime, the city was transformed as regards the relationship between
built volumes and urban spaces, and in relation to social use. The alteration in
urban environments can be seen by comparing two views, one by Cristoforo De
Grassi of 1481, and the other by Gerolamo Bordoni in 1616.
The cornice of the walls changes, which on the inland side are rebuilt not very
differently from their old course (1537-38), with articulated bastions at the
junctions with ramparts designed by famous experts (consultancy from
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, built by Olgiate).
On the seaward side, since before the turn of the century the sea walls have
been completed, having been begun in 1533 with the gate by Alessi, and built
with great engineering works. The sea walls in front of the Ripa, although it is
possible to walk along the tops as a public right of way, have been built as a barrier
between city and port for revenue reasons, to implement policies of customs
exemption (Genoa was constituted a Free Port in 1608).
Between the two views, we notice the disappearance of many towers and the
emergence of major public works (cupola of the Cathedral, the Molo gate, the
Sauli Basilica at Carignano), focal points which anticipate a new conceptual
dimension of the city.
In the architectural image of the city, some mediaeval elements have disappeared, such as the corbels and the mullioned windows, replaced by sheer walls in stone, rectangular window-openings and balconies, and frescoes which simulate classical architecture, added to the old facades.
Radicalisation of social relationships has led to a new kind of urban organisation, with less mingling between different social groups: the private arcades and squares have disappeared, the arcades have been closed to enable building, the squares have been acquired for public use simultaneously with the building of new palazzi and the thinning-out of lesser buildings. Palazzi are now located on the more open public spaces, and a process has begun of marginalisation of urban environments which had been noble.
They remain shut up like internal islands, eliminated from the image which the city offers of itself on its principal streets.
The main characters in the new configuration of the city are the palazzi and the
churches, which are rebuilt with elongation of the naves and apses, reversal of
the frontages, alteration of the architectural facies, in accordance with the new
linguistic models of classicism and, on a liturgical level, in accordance with the
prescriptions of the Counter-Reformation.
Piazza Banchi
As regards public intervention, only the construction at Banchi of the new
Borsa (Loggia dei Mercanti), a space for negotiating business, succeeded in
overcoming the accumulation of organised interests and the opposition of
important families. The renewal began with the construction of the church of
S. Pietro, which recalls on a smaller scale the volume of the basilica of
Carignano6. The religious building was erected over a floor of botteghe constructed
to finance the work, with a result which is architecturally surprising
but which amplifies the perspective of the piazza.
A large number of private interventions were started at the same time in the
area, with the commencement by Ambrogio Di Negro of the first large palazzo
facing onto the square (1568).
The Borsa, built between 1590 and 1596 with a self-financing mechanism similar
to the church (erection of a number of botteghe) is an airy space with a single
hall. It has a suspended pavilion vault, whose construction is an extraordinary
work of carpentry, a grid of beams from which hang the curved timbers
of the vault underneath, supported by a perimetral structure with open arches
(without the present-day windows) and paired columns .
Strada Balbi
In the 17th century we witness a reorganisation of the urban structure especially
as regards the port, with the lengthening of the old Molo and the construction
of the new Molo to the west, even though the walls reinforce the isolation
of the port within its own autonomy.
In the first half of the 17th century the Strada dei Balbi was opened, on land
which was held in an inalienable family trust. The construction of the road was
interconnected with the need to improve accessibility to the city from the west.
The projects for widening the coastal road system examined at the end of the
16th century were taken up again but with a different line, uphill from the settlement
of Prè, by way of the Villa dei Balbi, which rose from Guastato to the
walls.
On the environmental level the series of palazzi and religious and monastic complexes, such as the church of S. Carlo and the Jesuit College, form a rigid and imposing boundary to the mediaeval web of settlements, with a straight-line course behind the suburb which had grown up from the 12th century around the S. Fede gate and the Commenda di S. Giovanni.
The opening of Via Balbi remains a unique episode, and the tendency was confirmed for the noble class not to invest in the building palazzi outside the urban nucleus enclosed by the 12th-century wall. As regards structural urban alterations and the growth of the noble city, Via Balbi is thus the last manifestation of an episode which had its greatest splendour in the 16th century.
Strada Nuovissima
The need to improve the urban road system would find expression in the construction in 1778-86 of Strada Nuovissima (Via Cairoli), which connects the Strade Nuove, giving rise to interesting architectural innovations, as in the palazzo of Tomaso Lomellini, where the theme of the double frontage (facing onto Strada Nuova and Via Lomellini) was resolved by means of a steep stairway.
The opening of Via Cairoli completed the urban route flanked with palazzi
whose inscription is proposed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which, by
reason of the unitary nature of the architectural scene, even in the various temporal
stages of its construction, constitutes a true integral urban architecture.
