Description
The Palazzo Ducale is the palace of the Doges of Genoa, between Piazza De Ferrari and Piazza Matteotti: for centuries the seat of the Republic's government, today it is the city's cultural centre, with major exhibitions in frescoed halls, arcaded courtyards and a medieval tower that was once a prison.
It took the name Ducale in 1339, when the first doge, Simone Boccanegra, came to live here. The present palace joins thirteenth-century buildings into a Mannerist complex by Vannone, from the late sixteenth century, partly rebuilt after a fire in 1777.
Through the main door on Piazza Matteotti you enter Vannone's vaulted atrium, 43 metres long: a white vault carried at each end by rows of columns, like a sail swollen by the wind. On either side open the two arcaded courtyards, their columns lined up in a play of perspective.
The grand staircase leads up to the piano nobile. The Hall of the Great Council, 37 metres long, is where the doge was elected: Neoclassical, with marble columns, stucco caryatids and a vault that recalls the hull of an upturned ship.
Next to it are the Hall of the Lesser Council, the doge's apartment with Rococo stucco, and the Doge's Chapel, which escaped the fire: entirely frescoed in the seventeenth century by Giovanni Battista Carlone, with Columbus planting the cross in the New World.
Up above you climb to the medieval Grimaldina Tower and its prisons. On the cell walls the prisoners left writings and drawings: in the artists' cell you can make out warships, soldiers, ladies, knights and even a hot-air balloon.
The prisoners included the Ottoman corsair Dragut and several painters. The nobleman Domenico Dalla Chiesa, locked up at the request of his brother, a senator, managed to escape: he climbed to the belfry and let himself down onto the terrace using the flag at the top of the tower.
The palace has two faces. On Piazza Matteotti stands Simone Cantoni's Neoclassical façade, with columns and statues: the columns also act as buttresses for the vault of the great hall, rebuilt in brick after the fire in place of the wooden one.
On Piazza De Ferrari, by contrast, the façade is painted: Orlando Grosso repainted it in the twentieth century, and on Via Tommaso Reggio he also brought the loggia and the remains of the medieval palaces back to light.
In the nineteenth century, once the Republic had ended, the palace became a law court and stayed one until 1975. The great restoration of 1992, for the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's voyage, gave it back to the city.
Don't miss
• Vaulted atrium and courtyards.
• Hall of the Great Council.
• Doge's Chapel.
• Grimaldina Tower and prisons.
Did you know?
• Under the arcade of the smaller courtyard you can still see the slot where citizens could leave anonymous denunciations.
• In 2001 the palace hosted the meetings of the G8 summit.
It took the name Ducale in 1339, when the first doge, Simone Boccanegra, came to live here. The present palace joins thirteenth-century buildings into a Mannerist complex by Vannone, from the late sixteenth century, partly rebuilt after a fire in 1777.
Through the main door on Piazza Matteotti you enter Vannone's vaulted atrium, 43 metres long: a white vault carried at each end by rows of columns, like a sail swollen by the wind. On either side open the two arcaded courtyards, their columns lined up in a play of perspective.
The grand staircase leads up to the piano nobile. The Hall of the Great Council, 37 metres long, is where the doge was elected: Neoclassical, with marble columns, stucco caryatids and a vault that recalls the hull of an upturned ship.
Next to it are the Hall of the Lesser Council, the doge's apartment with Rococo stucco, and the Doge's Chapel, which escaped the fire: entirely frescoed in the seventeenth century by Giovanni Battista Carlone, with Columbus planting the cross in the New World.
Up above you climb to the medieval Grimaldina Tower and its prisons. On the cell walls the prisoners left writings and drawings: in the artists' cell you can make out warships, soldiers, ladies, knights and even a hot-air balloon.
The prisoners included the Ottoman corsair Dragut and several painters. The nobleman Domenico Dalla Chiesa, locked up at the request of his brother, a senator, managed to escape: he climbed to the belfry and let himself down onto the terrace using the flag at the top of the tower.
The palace has two faces. On Piazza Matteotti stands Simone Cantoni's Neoclassical façade, with columns and statues: the columns also act as buttresses for the vault of the great hall, rebuilt in brick after the fire in place of the wooden one.
On Piazza De Ferrari, by contrast, the façade is painted: Orlando Grosso repainted it in the twentieth century, and on Via Tommaso Reggio he also brought the loggia and the remains of the medieval palaces back to light.
In the nineteenth century, once the Republic had ended, the palace became a law court and stayed one until 1975. The great restoration of 1992, for the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's voyage, gave it back to the city.
Don't miss
• Vaulted atrium and courtyards.
• Hall of the Great Council.
• Doge's Chapel.
• Grimaldina Tower and prisons.
Did you know?
• Under the arcade of the smaller courtyard you can still see the slot where citizens could leave anonymous denunciations.
• In 2001 the palace hosted the meetings of the G8 summit.