Michelangelo. The interior is fine, harmonious and restrained,
painted in white and grey, while the colouring of the exterior
is less pleasing. From the highest gallery of the dome—368
ft. above the sea-level, and 194 ft. above the ground—a magnificent view is obtained of the city and the neighbouring coast.
Buildings of the 15th century do not occupy an important place in Genoa, but there are some small private houses and remains of sculptural decoration of the Early Renaissance to be seen in the older portions of the town. The palaces of the Genoese patricians, famous for their sumptuous architecture, their general effectiveness (though the architectural details are often faulty if closely examined), and their artistic collections, were many of them built in the latter part of the 16th century by Galeazzo Alessi, a pupil of Michelangelo, whose style is of an imposing and uniform character and displays marvellous ingenuity in using a limited or unfavourable site to the greatest advantage. Several of the villas in the vicinity of the city are also his work. The Via Garibaldi is flanked by a succession of magnificent palaces, chief among which is the Palazzo Rosso, so called from its red colour. Formerly the palace of the Brignole-Sale family, it was presented by the duchess of Galliera to the city in 1874, along with its valuable contents, its library and picture gallery, which includes fine examples of Van Dyck and Paris Bordone. The Palazzo Municipale, built by Rocco Lurago at the end of the 16th century, once the property of the dukes of Turin, has a beautiful entrance court and a hanging terraced garden fronting a noble staircase of marble which leads to the spacious council chamber. In an adjoining room are preserved a bronze tablet dating from 117 B.C. (see below), two autograph letters of Columbus, and the violin of Paganini, also a native of Genoa. Opposite the Palazzo Rosso is the Palazzo Bianco, a palace full of art treasures bequeathed to the city by the duchess of Galliera upon her death in 1889, and subsequently converted into a museum. The Roman antiquities here preserved belong to other places—Luna, Libarna, &c. The Adorno, Giorgio Doria (both containing small but choice picture-galleries), Parodi and Serra and other palaces in this street are worthy of mention. The Via Balbi again contains a number of palaces. The Durazzo Pallavicini palace has a noble façade and staircase and a rich picture-gallery. The street takes its name, however, from the Palazzo Balbi-Senarega, which has Doric colonnades and a fine orangery. The Palazzo dell’ Università has an extremely fine court and staircase of the early 17th century. The Palazzo Reale is also handsome but somewhat later. The Palazzo Doria in the Piazza del Principe, presented to Andrea Doria by the Genoese in 1522, is on the other hand earlier; it was remodelled in 1529 by Montorsoli and decorated with fine frescoes by Perino del Vaga. The old palace of the doges, originally a building of the 13th century, to which the tower alone belongs, the rest of the building having been remodelled in the 16th century and modernized after a fire in 1777, stands in the Piazza Umberto Primo near the cathedral, and now contains the telegraph and other government offices. Another very fine building is the Gothic Palazzo di S. Giorgio, near the harbour, dating from about 1260, occupied from 1408 to 1797 by the Banca di S. Giorgio, and now converted into a produce exchange. The Campo Santo or Cimitero di Staglieno, about 112 m. from the city on the banks of the Bisagno, is one of the chief features of Genoa; its situation is of great natural beauty and it is remarkable for its sepulchral monuments, many of which have been executed by the foremost sculptors of modern Italy. The university, founded in 1471, is a flourishing institution with faculties in law, medicine, natural science, engineering and philosophy. Attached to it are a library, an observatory, a botanical garden, and a physical and natural history museum. Genoa is also well supplied with technical schools and other institutions for higher education, while ample provision is made for primary education. The hospitals and the asylum for the poor are among the finest institutions of their kind in Italy. Mention must also be made of the Academy of Fine Arts, the municipal library, the great Teatro Carlo Felice and the Verdi Institute of Music.
The irregular relief of its site and its long confinement within the limits of fortifications, which it had outgrown, have both contributed to render Genoa a picturesque confusion of narrow streets, lanes and alleys, varied with stairways climbing the steeper slopes and bridges spanning the deeper valleys. Large portions of the town are inaccessible to ordinary carriages, and many of the important streets have very little room for traffic. In modern times, however, a number of fine streets and squares with beautiful gardens have been laid out. The Piazza Ferrari, a large irregular space, is the chief focus of traffic and the centre of the Genoese tramway system; it is embellished with a fine equestrian statue of Garibaldi, unveiled in 1893, which stands in front of the Teatro Carlo Felice. Leading from this piazza is the Via Venti Settembre, a broad, handsome street laid out since 1887, leading south-east to the Ponte Pila, the central bridge over the Bisagno. The street is itself spanned by an elegant bridge carrying the Corso Andrea Podesta, a modern avenue on the heights above. Adjoining the church of the Madonna della Consolazione is the new market, a building of no little beauty. The Via Roma, another important centre of traffic which gives on to the Via Carlo Felice near the Piazza Ferrari, leads to the Piazza Corvetto, in the centre of which stands the colossal equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II. To the left is the Villetta Dinegro, a beautiful park belonging to the city, decorated with cascades and a number of statues and busts of prominent statesmen and citizens. To the right is another park, the Acquasola, laid out in 1837 on the site of the old ramparts. In the west of the city, in front of the principal station, is the Piazza Acquaverde. On the north side, embowered in palm trees, is a great statue of Columbus, at whose feet kneels the figure of America. Opposite is the Palazzo Faraggiana, with scenes from the life of Columbus in relief on its marble pediment. Among other modern thoroughfares, the Via di Circonvallazione a Monte, laid out since 1876 on the hills at the back of the town, leads by many curves from the Piazza Manin along the hill-tops westward, and finally descends into the Piazza Acquaverde; its entire length is traversed by an electric tramway, and it commands magnificent views of the town. A similar road, the Via di Circonvallazione a Mare, was laid out in 1893–1895 on the site of the outer ramparts, and skirts the sea-front from the Piazza Cavour to the mouth of the Bisagno, thence ascending the right bank to the Ponte Pila. Genoa is remarkably well served with electric tramways, which are found in all the wider streets, and run, often through tunnels, into the suburbs and to the surrounding country on the east as far as Nervi and to Pegli on the west. Three funicular railways from different points of the city give access to the highest parts of the hills behind the town.
Though its existence as a maritime power was originally due to its port, it is only since 1870 that Genoa has provided the conveniences necessary for the modern development of its trade, the duke of Galliera’s gift of £800,000 to the city in 1875 being devoted to this purpose. A further enlargement of the harbour was necessitated upon the opening of the St Gotthard tunnel in 1882, which extended the commercial range of the port through Switzerland into Germany. The old harbour is semi-circular in shape, 232 acres in area, with numerous quays, and protected by moles from southern and south-westerly winds. An outer harbour, 247 acres in area, has been constructed in front of this by extending the Molo Nuovo by the Molo Duca di Galliera, and another basin, the Vittorio Emanuele III., for coal vessels, with an area of 96 acres, is in course of construction to the west of this, between it and the lofty lighthouse which rises on the promontory at the south-west extremity of the harbour. This basin is to be entered from both the east and the west, and allows for a future extension in front of San Pier d’Arena as far as the mouth of the river Polcevera. The port administration was placed under an autonomous harbour board (consorzio) in 1903. The largest ships can enter the harbour, which has a minimum depth of 30 ft.; it has two dry docks, a graving dock and a floating dry dock. Very large warehouses have been constructed. The exports are olive oil, hemp, flax, rice, fruit, wine, hats, cheese, steel, velvets, gloves, flour, paper, soap and marble, while the main imports are coal, cotton, grain, machinery, &c. Genoa has a large emigrant traffic with America, and a large general passenger steamer traffic both for America and for the East.
The development of industry has kept pace with that of the harbour. The Ansaldo shipbuilding yards construct armoured cruisers both for the Italian navy and for foreign governments.
