The structure of Genoa's Old Town highlights medieval political divisions. From the 13th to the 14th centuries, influential families designated certain streets and squares as their territory. These regions often included churches, so praying in someone else's church would be stabbed to death. The labyrinth of narrow streets was the scene of long fights between the main families in the city, the Doria families, Spinola, Grimaldi i Fieschi. This situation changed only with the election of the first Doge of Genoa of the year 1339, when all four clans were expelled from the city board.
Ducal Palace. Jesus and the Cathedral
In years 1384-1515, except for brief periods of foreign domination, from the Palazzo Ducale in Piazza Matteotti ruled the city of the Doge. The present building, painted in white and black stripes and with a huge vaulted atrium, dates back to the 16th century. Wide, The stairs leading up from the courtyard were designed with the great retinue of the Doge in mind. Rising on the other side of the square, designed by Pellegrino Tibaldi at the end of the 16th century, the gloomy church of Gesu is decorated with a mass of marble and gilded stucco, among which are the Assumption of Guido Reni and two paintings by Rubens, Circumcision and the Miracle of St.. Ignatius.
Near the port stand the blackened walls of the Gothic Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (open all day). Central portal, surrounded by twisted, grooved columns and topped with interwoven black and white stripes, was made by French masters. The statue of Saint Lawrence holding the sundial is known in the city as the figure of the "knife grinder". The cathedral houses the Renaissance chapel of St.. John the Baptist, whose remains once rested here in a 12th-century sarcophagus. Raz, after a particularly dangerous storm, the priests carried his coffin through the city, to calm the sea, and every year henceforth 24 On June, there is a procession commemorating this event in honor of the saint. His reliquary with a polished quartz glass tray, where, according to legend, Salome was to receive the decapitated head of Saint John, is in the vault (Tue-Sat. 9.30-11.45 and 14.00-17.00). In addition, there is also a glass vessel from the 1st century, reportedly donated to Queen Saba by Solomon. According to legend, this vessel was used at the Last Supper. There are also monuments of Byzantine and later art, m.in. delicate, jeweled crosses and arm-shaped reliquaries.
Okolice Piazza di Sarzano
Above Piazza Matteotti, behind the range of restaurants and bars, is located Porta Soprana, former stone gate with two towers, leading to the city. The district that stretches from here to the coast consists of monasteries, small pancakes, undeveloped areas and construction sites. This part of the city was severely damaged by Allied bombing during World War II and is only now being rebuilt.
Located near the gate, the brick building, overgrown with wild wine, belonged to Father Columbus. He was a weaver, but he also worked as a guardian of the city gate. Krzysztof was the first member of the family, who went to sea.
The Genoa authorities are currently spending a lot of money on the maintenance of public buildings, m.in. for the renovation of the church of Sant'Agostino, whose mosaic-covered spire is a good landmark in the area of Piazza di Sarzano.
The adjacent building houses the Museo deU'Architettura e Scultura Ligure (Tue-Sat. 9.00-13.00 and 15.00-18.00, Nd. 9.00-12.45; 2000 L), built around the triangular cloisters of the thirteenth-century monastery. This museum has Roman and Romanesque fragments of architecture of other churches, as well as wood carvings and ancient maps of Genoa. It is a particularly neglected district and tourists walking along the narrow streets may be met with unfriendly gazes, and sometimes with loud whistles. The warnings read in guidebooks about the dangers of single women are greatly exaggerated - you just have to trust your instincts and only go there, where we feel safe.
On the way to the port, walking along Via di Santa Croce, then make a right onto Salita Santa Maria, you come across one of the oldest churches in the city, The 12th-century basilica of Santa Maria di Castello. The adjoining Dominican monastery was added in the 15th century, when the basilica itself was rebuilt in the gothic style. Inside is a museum (Wed. and sb. 15.00-17.00), which has paintings by Lodovico Brea, including rich color, Full of portraits of 16th-century Genoese people, the painting The Coronation of Mary. During the Crusades, the temple served as a shelter for crusaders going to the Holy Land. Przewodził im William's Head of Mallet (Head-Hammer) drunk. The tower built by him was incorporated into the adjacent seven-story building.
A long way runs north of Santa Maria, straight, Via San Bernardo built by the Romans. It is currently one of the busiest, intended only for pedestrians, streets in Genoa. Behind the magnificent portals of palaces, which were rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries by adding decorative vaults, loggias with balustrades and frescoes, today there are grocery stores and bakeries.
In the vicinity of Via San Bernardo it is situated quiet, surrounded by the busy shopping streets of Piazza San Donato, on which San Donato rises, one of the most attractive churches in the Old Town. White and black stripes on the walls of it, as well as other churches, they were a sign of prestige, because families could only put them there with permission, which, in turn, were spent for "wonderful deeds for the glory of their hometown". The Doria family went even further and in Piazza San Matteo (on the other side of Via San Lorenzo), on the marble stripes placed on the 12th-century church and adjacent palaces, inscriptions, which commemorate the merits of individual family members.