The historic center of Genoa is the core of the old town organized in the maze of alleys (caruggi) of medieval origin that runs – from east to west – from the hill of Carignano (Genoa) to the Genova Piazza Principe railway station, close to what was once the Palazzo del Principe, residence of Admiral Andrea Doria. Urbanistically, the area is part of Municipio I Centro-Est.
However, the current municipal area was created by the merger, which took place on several occasions starting in the second half of the 19th century, of historic Genoa with adjacent municipalities and towns (now neighborhoods), some of which have more or less ancient historic centers of their own and have been urbanistically transformed over the years.
The major urban planning operations carried out from the first half of the 19th century to beyond the middle of the 20th century (which are difficult to replicate today, given the increased interest in the protection of historic neighborhoods by the public administration), combined with the damage that occurred during World War II (many of the old buildings were destroyed during the Allied bombing raids), partly disrupted the original fabric of the historic center. Slightly less than a quarter of the buildings (23.5 percent) date from the postwar period or later.
History and features
The history of the historic core of the Ligurian capital is totally linked to the city's history, from the beginnings of the construction of the first dwellings of the Ligurians on the hill of Castello, to the Roman period, along the years of the Maritime Republics (of which the annalist Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone, known simply as the Caffaro, kept note), to the patriotic and insurrectional battles of Young Italy and Giuseppe Mazzini's Carboneria.
The first hypotheses about the history of ancient Genoa, unrelated to mythology or propagandistic versions of its origins and pre-Roman period, date back to the 17th century (an example is Odoardo Ganducio's Discorso sopra l'iscrittione, ouero epitafio ritrouato a Tortona in vn marmo, d' vn decurione antico genuese, 1614), but only with the discoveries that have occurred since the end of the 19th century and the subsequent study of the finds has a clearer (albeit partly incomplete) view of the city's real past become available. However, many of the publications describing the city's history up to the mid-19th century did not address the question of the location of the earliest settlements or the period in which they originated.Marco Milanese, Scavi nell'oppidum preromano di Genova: (Genova, San Silvestro 1) – Volume 1, collana Studia archaeologica Volume 48, L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1987, ISBN 88-7062-621-0, p. 19 e sgg. Reconstructions of past centuries did not always prove to be accurate in the light of new discoveries, and it often occurred that they contained errors, due to a lack of archaeological sources and/or an attempt to locate elements of the ancient city based on those, more modern, of Genoa visible at the time when these hypotheses were made.A cura di Piera Melli, La città ritrovata, Archeologia urbana a Genova 1984–1994, Tormena Editore, 1996, pp. 33, 45 ISBN 88-86017-62-6
The habit of building on existing structures (often recycling materials salvaged from earlier constructions, even from places outside Genoa), the numerous alterations and expansions of pre-existing buildings and churches carried out during periods of economic prosperity and growth of the city, or even the outright urbanistic revolutions caused by the growing need to improve the city's road network, as well as the destruction wrought by French bombardments in the 17th century, those related to the Savoy's repression of the independence uprisings of 1849, and finally those suffered at the hands of the Allies in World War II, which were followed by related reconstructions, have given rise to a very heterogeneous building situation, with streets and squares where, within the space of a few dozen meters, buildings can be found separated from each other by centuries of history. Most of the ancient buildings that make up the historic center date back to the 12th and 13th centuries,A cura di Piera Melli, La città ritrovata, Archeologia urbana a Genova 1984–1994, p. 390, Tormena Editore, 1996, ISBN 88-86017-62-6 although they have often undergone later modifications.
The area of the historic center is bounded by the watersheds that divide it from the Polcevera Valley to the northwest and the Bisagno Valley to the northeast. Geologically, it consists of three types of geological formations: the marly limestones of Mount Antola (Carignano and Sarzano areas, as well as the area between Righi and Castelletto and the Lanterna area), dating from the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene periods; the Val Polcevera mudstones (with some outcrops, especially in the Granarolo area), which form the base of the flysch of the earlier formation; Piccapietra marls (Portoria area and part of the Maddalena and Molo districts), dating from the Pliocene.A cura di Piera Melli, La città ritrovata, Archeologia urbana a Genova 1984–1994, pag 25 e pag 26, Tormena Editore, 1996, ISBN 88-86017-62-6
There were several streams and creeks in the area, which over the centuries were covered and/or channeled into the city sewer system to obtain new building areas. Some terms in the city's toponymy refer to these streams, for example in the street at the Ponte Reale (connecting Piazza Banchi to Piazza Caricamento), where the term "Reale" would not mean royalty, but would be a deformation of rià (rio, or stream, in Genoese), from the riale di Soziglia (i.e., Soziglia stream) that flowed in the area.Riccardo Navone, Viaggio nei caruggi. Edicole votive, pietre e portali, Fratelli Frilli Editori, Genova, 2007 ISBN 978-88-7563-334-9, p. 151 Another example would be Piazza Acquaverde (opposite the Piazza Principe train station), whose name is said to derive from the presence of a pond rich in algae, hence the greenish color, fed by the Sant'Ugo stream (a legend has it that it was the saint himself who caused the water that fed the pond to gush out).Riccardo Navone, Viaggio nei caruggi. Edicole votive, pietre e portali, Fratelli Frilli Editori, Genova, 2007 ISBN 978-88-7563-334-9, p. 382
The historic center is traditionally divided into six areas called sestieri: (Prè, Portoria, Molo, Maddalena, San Vincenzo (Genoa), San Teodoro), with the historical trace of the ancient districts of what was once the capital of the Republic of Genoa being maintained. This subdivision falls outside the one that sees the municipal territory organized into more than a dozen wards (or municipalities): the six sestieri are currently included in the territory of the Municipi I Centro Est and II Centro Ovest (for the sestiere of San Teodoro alone).
Streets and alleys traditionally were paved with stones or bricks, which composed various designs, from the more linear ones, such as parallel-row or herringbone placement, to more complex ones. The stone slabs were usually of two sizes, a thin and long type (about 12–15 cm by 70–75 cm), called "cordonini," and a wider type (24–26 cm by 50–60 com) called "tacchi," and sometimes these were alternated with bricks or flanked by cobblestones. In churchyards or palace gardens sometimes the technique of risseu, a cobblestone mosaic typical of Liguria, was used.Proposta per la riqualificazione di itinerari significativi del centro storico di Genova, Consorzio Imprenditori Edili Genovesi, 1990, capitolo "Cenni storici" Over the years, asphalt paving has covered some of the original pavement.
Surface In view of the original core's size of 1.13 km² (i.e., 113 hectares, the area of the Prè-Molo-Maddalena neighborhoods),Il Piano Operativo per il Centro Storico, sheets 004_2002 URBAN II: Centro Storico and 025_2002 L'edilizia privata in Centro Storico, from the Genoa municipality website it is cited as the most extensive old town in Europe. In fact, this may be considered an urban legend, as it turns out to be less extensive than, for example,"Il centro storico: da freno a opportunità" , insight by Bruno Gabrielli, councillor for urban quality, from the Genoa City Council website Rome (1,430 hectares)"Comune di Roma, Municipio Roma centro storico, Piano regolatore 2008 – 2010" , from the City of Rome website, p. 10 and Naples (the latter, with its 1,700 hectares, the largest).
The high density of buildings, especially after the enormous building growth that began with the 18th century, nevertheless makes it one of the historical centers with the highest population density: about 23,000 inhabitants live in the oldest area (also including the port area), distributed in 2305 buildings (value as of 1999) on a volume of about 10 million cubic meters.
The area of the historic center, due to the orography of the area, varies, even greatly, depending on the criteria and method used to estimate it. In the Dizionario geografico storico-statistico-commerciale degli Stati di S. M. il Re di Sardegna Volume 7 (published in 1840)Goffredo Casalis, Dizionario geografico storico statistico commerciale degli Stati di S.M. il Re di Sardegna Volume 7 , pag 327 by Goffredo Casalis, the surface area of the town is estimated, also using data from M. Cevasco's Statistique de la ville de Genes,M. Cevasco, Statistique de la ville de Gênes – tome premier e Statistique de la ville de Gênes – tome second published a few years earlier, pointing out how its conformation, endowed with numerous changes in the elevation of the terrain, makes the flat area much less than it actually is:
The text then gives these surface figures (in hectares) for the six sestieri as they were delimited at the time: SestieriTotal area (hectares)Flat area (hectares)San Vincenzo25342San Teodoro45821Pré4924Maddalena237Portoria8342Molo3028Total896164
The municipality of Genoa, for the urban units covering the two districts related to the city center, provides these area values (not all the urban units listed are part of what is identified with the historic center):Atlante demografico della città 2007 , publication of the Statistics Office of the City of Genoa. Municipio I Genova Centro EstMunicipio II Genova Centro OvestUrban unitTotal area (hectares)Population center (hectares)Urban unitTotal area (hectares)Population center (hectares)Lagaccio89,4846,23Campasso82,8369,31Oregina185,2461,22San Gaetano34,7734,36Prè44,9637,29Sampierdarena53,0152,06Maddalena26,9522,33Belvedere47,3447,29Molo34,9633,42San Bartolomeo89,49 66,07San Nicola80,8565,36Angeli74,7263,78Castelletto67,7167,71San Teodoro103,0490,48Manin49,9344,19San Vincenzo68,5359,36Carignano59,1358,53
The development of early Genoa and early settlements
As written earlier, due to the frequent and continuous construction of new buildings on top of what previously existed and after the bombing of the last world war, no Roman or pre-Roman remains are visible. Over the past two centuries, remodeling works in some parts of the city (e.g., Via XX Settembre and surrounding areas between the 18th and 19th centuries), as well as restoration and extension works on buildings and streets, have repeatedly brought to light numerous ruins and objects related to early city settlements or the later Roman period.Enzo Bernardini, Liguria, collana itinerari archeologici, 1981, Newton Compton Editore, p. 168 e sgg.i