Via Garibaldi is a short Renaissance street where twelve palazzi, built by rival Genoese banking families, form a single architectural composition. Designed by Galeazzo Alessi before a single facade went up, it became the model list of noble houses obliged to host visiting heads of state.
At a glance
The Strade Nuove are the network of wide Renaissance streets begun in 1550 in the historic core of Genoa, of which Via Garibaldi, 250 metres long, was the first. It was conceived by the Perugian architect Galeazzo Alessi as a complete architectural composition, with facade alignment and cornice heights fixed before the twelve individual patrician families built their palaces. A second street, Via Balbi, extended the network from 1601.
Alongside the streets, the Sistema dei Palazzi dei Rolli is the list of palaces that the Genoa Senate, by decree of 1576, designated to host visiting dignitaries at the expense of their noble owners. Dignitaries were assigned a palace according to rank, from kings and popes down to minor nobles. The 1599 Rollo recorded 163 palaces; when UNESCO inscribed the site in 2006 under reference 1211, 42 of these palaces were still substantially intact and accessible.
Key facts
- Location: Via Garibaldi, historic centre of Genoa, Liguria
- Built: 1550–1559, designed by Galeazzo Alessi
- Key palaces: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Tursi
- Rolli system: established by Senate decree in 1576, listing palaces obliged to host state guests
- Recognition: UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed 2006, reference 1211
- Architectural legacy: the palaces were drawn and published by Peter Paul Rubens in 1622 and 1626
History
The Strade Nuove grew out of the political and financial transformation of Genoa in the sixteenth century. The constitutional reform of 1528, led by the Doria family, turned the city into a stable oligarchic republic allied with the Spanish Crown. In exchange for that alliance, Genoese bankers gained the right to finance Spanish military campaigns and the treasure fleets arriving from the Americas, a role that made Genoa one of the financial centres of Europe through the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
The wealth generated by this banking power found expression in the Strade Nuove. Rival noble families competed to build the most impressive palace, but Alessi’s unified design code prevented open disparities between one facade and the next, producing a street of consistent grandeur rather than individual showpieces. The Rollo decree of 1576 turned this private competition into a public institution, obliging listed families to bear the cost of hosting visiting dignitaries in return for prestige. The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, who visited Genoa in 1600–1601 and again in 1607 to paint portraits for the Genoese nobility, made detailed architectural drawings of 64 of these palaces, later published as Palazzi di Genova (1622) and Palazzi Antichi di Genova (1626). The books became widely cited in English architectural circles through the seventeenth century, and the architect Inigo Jones drew directly on Rubens’s plates for Lindsey House and Ashburnham House in London. The Strade Nuove and the Rolli Palaces were together inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2006, under reference 1211.
What you see
Via Garibaldi is lined by the twelve Rolli-era palazzi, of which Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria Tursi are the most significant. Palazzo Rosso, named for its ochre-red seventeenth-century facade, holds paintings by Van Dyck, including a double portrait of the Brignole-Sale family, alongside works by Guercino, Mattia Preti and Palma il Vecchio, and its top floor preserves frescoed state rooms with illusionistic seventeenth-century ceiling painting. Palazzo Bianco houses a collection of Flemish and Dutch painting, with works attributed to Memling, Jan David, Veronese, Caravaggio, Murillo and Zurbarán. Palazzo Tursi, now Genoa’s town hall, keeps Paganini’s violin, known as the Cannone, still played each year by the winner of the city’s Paganini Competition, together with letters written by Columbus to the Bank of San Giorgio.
Beyond the palaces, the surrounding centro storico is one of the largest medieval city centres in Europe, a dense network of narrow alleys, the caruggi, running between the old port and the Strade Nuove; one of its narrowest lanes, Via Chiossone, is little more than a metre wide.
Practical information
- Museums: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria Tursi form the Musei di Strada Nuova, with a combined ticket; check the official museum channels for current hours and prices
- Rolli Days: a biannual event, generally in spring and autumn, when the 42 UNESCO-listed Rolli palaces open with costumed guides and the Musei di Strada Nuova offer free access
- Getting around: the city rises in distinct levels from the old port to Via Garibaldi and up to the Castelletto viewpoint, connected by a funicular from Largo della Zecca and a public lift from Piazza Portello
Getting there
Genoa is reached by train from Milan and Turin, arriving at Genova Piazza Principe station; regional and national services run regularly through the day. Via Garibaldi lies within walking distance of the historic centre and the old port.Nearby
- Palazzo Rosso — on Via Garibaldi itself, part of the Musei di Strada Nuova
- Palazzo Bianco — adjoining Palazzo Rosso on Via Garibaldi
- Palazzo Tursi — on Via Garibaldi, now Genoa’s town hall
- The Castelletto — a panoramic terrace above the old town, reached by public lift from Piazza Portello
Sources
- UNESCO (World Heritage inscription, reference 1211)
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