A dozen of palaces built along a 250-metre stretch of land were designed by some of Italy’s finest architects (XIV-XVI century).
Three palaces – Palazzo Rosso (Red Palace), Palazzo Bianco (White Palace), Palazzo Tursi – form a museum complex, the basis of the city’s richest collections. Here are kept authentic letters of Columbus and a 1742 Guarneri violin belonging to Niccolo Paganini. In the Galleries of Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso, decorated with Baroque frescoes, there is a large collection of Flemish and Genoese artists: Reni, Caravaggio, Antonello da Messina, Cambiaso, Gwercino, Titian, Lippi, Rubens, Van Dyck, Van Cleve, Dürer and others.
Palazzo Rosso. One of the oldest palaces in Genoa, and now given over to an art gallery. In 2006 it became one of the 42 palaces of Genoa listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site as “Palazzi dei Rolli”. The palace was designed by the architect Pietro Antonio Corradi between 1671 and 1677 at the behest of Rodolfo and Gio Francesco Brignole-Sale. Today you can see works by masters such as Van Dyck, Guido Reni, Paolo Veronese, Gvercino, Gregorio De Ferrari, Albrecht Dürer, Bernardo Strozzi, Mattia Preti and others. There are also various textile objects, especially costumes and tapestries, rare maps and stamps.
Palazzo Bianco. The White Palace is one of the main buildings in the historic centre of Genoa. The luxurious palace building was built between 1530 and 1540 for Luca Grimaldi, a member of one of Genoa’s most powerful families. Today, the Palazzo Bianco Gallery displays works by European artists from the twelfth to seventeenth centuries, especially works by masters from Genoa, Flamandia, France and Spain. The art of XIII-XVI centuries is represented by the paintings of Barnabas da Modena, Ludovico Brea and Luca Cambiaso. A special place in the collections of the gallery is occupied by works by Paolo Veronese and Filippino Lippi. Dutch and Flemish painters of the XVI-XVIII centuries are represented by Rubens (“Venus and Mars”) and Van Dyck (“Vertummo and Pomona”). Of the Spanish painters, Zurbarán, Murillo and Ribeira have been selected. Finally, the gallery also displays sculptures and frescoes collected in various museums in Europe.
Palazzo Tursi. The palace was built starting in 1565 for Niccolò Grimaldi, known as “The Monarch” for his extraordinary wealth: in fact, it occupies the largest area of all the palaces on Strada Nuova. Since 2004, the main floor of the palace has been part of the museum system belonging to the Municipality of Genoa. The last part of Palazzo Bianco’s collection is on display in Palazzo Tursi with 18th century paintings, including the famous “Entertainments in the Garden of Albaro” by Alessandro Magnasco and Magdalena by sculptor Antonio Canova; the famous Guarneri del Gesù violin “Il Cannone”, which belonged to the violinist Nicolo Paganini, and other memorabilia associated with the Genoese violinist; and the civic collections of coins, ceramics, weights and measures.
Civic collections of coins, ceramics, weights and measures.
