Along Via Garibaldi, once the Strada Nuova of the Republic of Genoa, stand the palaces that the city’s wealthiest banking families were obliged to make available to host visiting kings, cardinals and ambassadors. Three of these buildings are today museums open to the public.
At a glance
The Palazzi dei Rolli are the forty-two private buildings that the Republic of Genoa entered, between 1576 and 1664, into official lists called “rolli” (from the Genoese word for “list” or “roll”). The owning families were required to host visiting dignitaries in their own homes, under a three-tier system that fixed the rank of guest each palace had to receive: sovereigns and popes in the first-category palaces, cardinals and great nobles in the second, ambassadors and merchant representatives in the third.
The system arose because Genoa, then the financial capital of Europe thanks to the Bank of San Giorgio, received state visits too frequently for the Republic to afford a royal palace of its own. In exchange for the duty of hospitality, the families received tax exemptions. The Strada Nuova, today Via Garibaldi, was opened in 1558 to a single unified town-planning design, with building regulations that imposed a shared cornice height and an identical setback from the street.
Key facts
- What they are: forty-two private palaces entered in the official Rolli lists between 1576 and 1664, meant to house visiting dignitaries.
- Main streets: Via Garibaldi (the old Strada Nuova, opened in 1558) and Via Balbi.
- Strada Nuova museums: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria-Tursi, the three palaces on Via Garibaldi open today to the public as a civic museum.
- Historical record: the book of engravings “Palazzi di Genova”, published by Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp in 1622, the only systematic record of the palaces before the nineteenth century.
- Recognition: UNESCO inscription in 2006, reference 1211.
- Coordinates: 44.4088° N, 8.9317° E (Via Garibaldi, centre).
History
Genoa’s wealth rested on the Bank of San Giorgio, established in 1407 and held to be the first public bank in history. It issued transferable public debt securities, among the earliest known negotiable financial instruments, and managed the Republic’s overseas holdings, from Corsica to, until 1768, colonies on the Black Sea such as Caffa, lost with the Ottoman conquest of 1475.
After 1521 Genoese bankers, in particular the Giustiniani, Grimaldi, Spinola and Doria families, became the chief financiers of the Spanish crown, funding the wars of Charles V and the naval preparations of Philip II, and gained in return control over the management of American silver bound from Spain to the Netherlands. It was in this context of enormous wealth that the Republic established, in 1576, the first Rolli list, later updated in 1588, 1599, 1614 and 1664. In 1622 Rubens published his survey of Genoese palaces in Antwerp, influencing urban residential architecture in Flanders, England and Germany. The ensemble of the Rolli streets and palaces was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2006.
What you see
The route along Via Garibaldi starts from Piazza della Nunziata: the street, pedestrian, runs toward Piazza Corvetto flanked by the facades of the Rolli palaces. Palazzo Doria-Tursi, at number 9, was built between 1565 and 1579 by the Grimaldi family and is the largest on the street, with two towers flanking the central courtyard. It today houses the offices of the Comune of Genoa and, in the Sala Paganini, the Stradivari violin that belonged to Niccolò Paganini, known as the “Cannone”, played every year by the winner of the international violin competition named after the musician. Palazzo Bianco, at number 11, dates to 1530 and holds Genoese and Flemish painting, including works by Van Dyck and Rubens. Palazzo Rosso, at number 18, was built between 1671 and 1677 by the Brignole Sale family and holds the cycle of Baroque frescoes by Gregorio de Ferrari on the piano nobile, together with three portraits by Rubens.
Going south from Via Garibaldi one meets the caruggi, the dense network of medieval lanes of old Genoa, in sharp contrast with the breadth of the Strada Nuova. Via Balbi, the second Rolli street, links Piazza Acquaverde to the Palazzo Reale, which holds the Sala degli Specchi and a 1699 fresco cycle by Gregorio de Ferrari, as well as a room devoted to Van Dyck portraits painted between 1621 and 1627. A short distance away is the Porto Antico, redesigned by Renzo Piano in 1992 for the Genoa Expo, with the city aquarium.
Practical information
- Access: Via Garibaldi is pedestrian and freely walkable; entry to the Musei di Strada Nuova is ticketed, with a combined ticket for the three palaces. For current hours and prices it is best to check the official Musei di Strada Nuova website.
- What to visit together: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Doria-Tursi can be visited on the same ticket.
- Palazzo Reale: on Via Balbi, run as a state museum, with its own hours to check with the relevant authority.
Getting there
Via Garibaldi lies in the historic centre of Genoa, a few minutes’ walk from Piazza Acquaverde station, from which Via Balbi also starts. The Porto Antico can be reached on foot from Via Garibaldi in about a quarter of an hour.
Nearby
- Via Balbi — the second Rolli street, with the Palazzo Reale and its collection of Van Dyck portraits.
- I caruggi — just south of Via Garibaldi, the network of medieval lanes of old Genoa.
- Porto Antico — a short walk away, the harbour area redesigned by Renzo Piano, with the Genoa Aquarium.
Sources
- UNESCO.
- Musei di Strada Nuova, Comune di Genova.
- Peter Paul Rubens, Palazzi di Genova (1622).
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