Palazzo Ducale. Genoa. In the 1860s Simone Cantoni imposed a severe French style upon the original building designed by Andrea Ceresola ("il Vannone") in 1587. Photograph 2007 and text by Philip V. Allingham. [This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.]
Most of old Genoa's palaces are in a triangular section of the town developed during the Renaissance, in particular that section bounded by the Via Luca, Via Luccoli, and Via Garbaldi. The Strada Nuova or "New Street," developed between 1550 and 1575, was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage site on 13 July 2006, joining a host of international architectural treasures that includes the Old Town in Quebec City and the Hanseatic League houses in Bergen, Norway. Dickens's "Street of the Palaces" contains the chief of these magnificent edifices, the dozen owned chiefly by bankers, ship-builders, and the Spanish crown. These "palazzi" follow the sequence of atrium, courtyard, grand staircase, and garden. In 1558 the three-block stretch was named the Via Maggiore or Aurea, but in 1882 was renamed for the Liberator of Italy, Garibaldi.
Related Material
- Another view of the Plazzo Ducale
- Dickens and Family at the Villa di Bella Vista
- Palazzo Peschiere and Genoa — a Gallery of Places Dickens lived or visited
Last modified 22 July 2007