MUSEUMS  - See also "A Day in Genoa"

  Museo delle Culture del Mondo  

  Castello d'Albertis (C.so Dogali, 18 - Ph. 010-2723820)
To reach the museum, take the elevator from Principe Railroad Station (next to Farmacia Pescetto) which stops in front of the museum entrance. The Castle, recently restored, hosts a variety of collections, including a most interesting one of the North American Plains Indians and Hopi, gathered by Capitano Enrico Alberto d'Albertis during his years of travel as an archeologist and ethnographer.

        Palazzo Spinola National Gallery 

 Piazza Pellicceria 1 - ph. 010.27.05.300

Located in Piazza Pellicceria in the heart of the city’s historic center, just a hundred meters from the Aquarium, the palazzo became a National Gallery in 1959 when it was donated by the Marquees Spinola to the Italian State. It maintains the appearance of a residence, allowing visitors to experience the atmosphere of a private dwelling as it was during the 17th and 18th centuries. Its treasures include an important collection of paintings by noteworthy Genoese artists, such as Castello, Strozzi, Cambiaso, and Parodi, and European artists such as Joos van Cleve. Of special interest are Van Dyck’s Portrait of a Child, Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina, and Ruben’s Equestrian Portrait of Gio Carlo Doria.  

        Palazzo del Principe   
The Prince’s Palace, located near the Principe train station, is the residence of the Doria Pamphilj princes. Partially restored quite recently, the Palace was built in 1528 by Andrea Doria (1466-1560), the great admiral of Emperor Charles V.  Frescoes and decorations were done by Perin del Vaga, from the school of Raffaello. Composer Giuseppe Verdi rented an apartment in the Palace where he spent several winters.

        Sant’Agostino Museum
Housed in a renovated Medieval convent in Piazza Sarzano, the museum offers an overview of Genoese sculptures, architecture, and paintings from the 10th to the 18th centuries. Masterpieces on display include works by Giovanni Pisano and Antonio Canova. Of particular interest are the triangular plan of the cloisters, and the bell tower cuspid covered in colorful maiolica tiles.

         Palazzo Reale National Gallery
Located in Via Balbi, near the Principe train station, the Royal Palace (1650), is a large patrician residence built and enlarged upon over time and splendidly decorated first by the Savoia family and then two subsequent Genoese dynasties: the Balbis and the Durazzos. It is quite likely the most immense architectural construction of the 1600s and 1800s preserved intact in Genoa, right down to its interior frescoes and stuccos and furnishings (paintings, sculptures, furniture, and ornaments). The Van Dyck room is most impressive and not to be overlooked!

          Commenda di Prè and the Church of S. Giovanni di Prè 
Near Principe Station, the Commenda complex was built in 1180 as a hostel and hospital for the Knights of Malta, welcoming pilgrims from the north on their way to the Holy Land. Restoration efforts begun in 1914 were not completed until 1961. Now a museum and exhibition hall.

            Oriental Art Museum Edoardo Chiossone
Located in Piazzale Mazzini (Villetta Di Negro) the museum contains a rare and precious collection of Japanese art (approx. 20,000 pieces).

            Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art
Via Jacopo Ruffini, 3 - ph. 010.58.00.69
Hosts the Cernuschi Ghiringhelli abstract collection as well as works by Genovese and Ligurian artists.

            Wolfsoniana Museum – Genova Nervi      

Via Serra Gropallo, 4 - 16167 Genova-Nervi - ph.  010 5761393; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -- Open Tue-Sun. from 10: 00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 

The Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection in Genoa-Nervi contains paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, glass, metalwork, architectural archives, books, and ephemera from the period 1885 to 1845 donated to the City of Genoa.

                         Mitchell Wolfson Jr.

“We are more responsible for what we bestow than for what we inherit, and what we do defines us for others and for ourselves.”  Mitchell Wolfson Jr. 

 After decades of collecting, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. established The Wolfsonian, a research institute in Miami, Florida, in the United States of America. This event in 1986 marked the beginning of this prolific collector’s formal, but not final, step in his lifetime mission of support and the promotion of scholarly research, preservation, education, and the collection of decorative, design, and propaganda arts. Preceding the establishment of The Wolfsonian, Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr. had accumulated more than 100,000 pieces, created between the years 1880 and 1945, of American, British, Dutch, German, and Italian design, and all historically used as decorative or propaganda art during their introductory years.

Beginning alone at a time when little or no interest existed among art collectors and connoisseurs, he collected interior furnishings, sculptures, paintings, books, prints, and archives related to these years of enormous social, political, and technological change, reflected in the art, literature, and technology of the period. The collection grew rapidly, and the pieces exclusively selected by Mr. Wollfson had to find a home. He purchased the historic Washington Storage Building in Miami Beach after years of being its most important tenant, because he needed that and more. It wasn’t enough; he had the building expanded, but the collection continued to outgrow the space. During the period of 1986 through 1996, the building was converted into an educational resource center, becoming the Wolfsonian – Florida International University, and most of the collection with two historic buildings was donated to the university.  

With the beginning of the Wolfsonian in 1986, Wolfson brought to life a unique publication to complement his mission. The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, affectionately called DAPA by staff and friends, became the internationally acclaimed and award-winning journal of its kind, as rich and unique in content as its name is descriptive. The Journal is now published by the Wolfsonian – Florida International University (FIU), as the DAPA staff works closely with that of the university’s in bringing the art world up to date on the specialized field of decorative and propaganda art. The most recent issues focused on Brazil, Cuba, and Florida, while earlier issues focused on Japan, Russia, Argentina, and Yugoslavia. Mr. Wolfson is Chairman of the Board of the Wolfsoniana Museum at FIU, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of that university. He also sits on the boards of several civic and philanthropic organizations in South Florida and around the world, with an emphasis on education--Miami Dade Community College, Princeton University, and Johns Hopkins University are among his active interests, along with the Audubon House and Gardens in Key West, Florida. Micky Wolfson, Jr. was born in South Florida, graduated from the Lawrenceville School, Princeton University, and earned his master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University, Washington and Bologna. He served as a diplomat in Washington and Bologna before being transferred to Genoa, where he has maintained lifelong interests. A world traveler, he has elevated the process of collecting to an art, while creating a vocabulary for his specialized interests where there was none before.  

*************************

CHURCHES  - See also "A Day in Genoa"

                                 Chiesa di San Donato
Located in Piazza San Donato, opposite the Palazzo Ducale, this lovely church dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries boasts a unique octagonal Romanesque bell tower. 

                                 Chiesa di San Matteo
Located at the heart of the former Doria Family fief in Piazza S. Matteo, the church’s façade is done in typically Genoese fashion, with alternating bands of black stone and white marble. Inside the church is the crypt containing Admiral Andrea Doria's tomb and sword. 

                                 Santa Maria di Castello
Romanesque church under the care of Dominican monks since 1492. Located in the most ancient part of the town not far from the Medieval "Torre degli Embriaci" tower, which was constructed by Guglielmo degli Embriaci who participated in the Crusade to liberate Jerusalem in 1099. 

                                 San Siro
Located in the historical center near Palazzo S. Giorgio. Originally paleocristian (400 AD). It was a cathedral until the 9th century. Reconstructed during the Romanesque period by Benedictine monks and restored in 1570 (late Renaissance, almost Baroque). Frescoes by Carlone.

                                 The Anglican Church

Inside the Anglican Church in Piazza Marsala, a memorial fixes James Smithson’s contacts with Genoa for posterity. Not many in Genoa remember that James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, thought to be born in France during the year 1765 and naturalized as a British citizen around the age of ten, died in Genoa on June 27, 1829, where he was buried in the British Cemetery.

On November 24, 1900 a member of the British Burial Ground Association in Genoa informed Samuel P. Langley who had invested in Italian bonds for the care of Smithson’s grave, of the need to remove Smithson’s remains due to quarrying in the area. With the assistance of the U.S. Consul in Genoa, William Henry Bishop, and accompanied by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, a Regent of the Smithsonian, Smithson’s remains were brought to the U.S. in 1904. Later in the same year, Smithson’s original tomb was transferred to America, and Smithson’s Mortuary Chapel was constructed in the Smithsonian Institution Building.
Further info on James Smithson can be found on the Smithsonian’s web site.