Description
Palazzo San Giorgio is the painted palace on Genoa's old port, in Piazza Caricamento: half medieval, in red brick and stone, half sixteenth-century, with its seaward façade covered in frescoes and a huge Saint George slaying the dragon.
Built as the city's town hall, it later housed the customs office and the Bank of Saint George, one of the first banks founded in Italy. Since 1903 it has been home to the port authority, and it can be visited by appointment or during exhibitions.
The palace's two sides are two worlds. Facing Sottoripa is the medieval part of 1260: a portico of pointed arches, three- and four-light windows, battlements on top. Above the portal, a lion's head comes from the Venetians' palace in Constantinople, which the Genoese received from the Byzantine emperor.
Facing the sea, on Via della Mercanzia, is the frescoed façade: fake marble, Janus and Neptune and six painted statues of great Genoese, from Andrea Doria to Columbus, around the saint on horseback. At the top, the clock tower.
Inside, a grand staircase leads up to the Sala delle Compere, with statues of the Bank's benefactors in the niches. In the medieval part are the Hall of the Captain of the People and the Manica Lunga, rebuilt in the nineteenth century as people then imagined the Middle Ages.
Within these walls, in 1298, Marco Polo was locked up, taken prisoner after the Battle of Curzola. In almost a year of captivity he dictated his travel memories to his cellmate Rustichello da Pisa: that is how The Travels of Marco Polo came about.
The palace was designed by a monk, Brother Oliverio, when the sea still lapped at its foundations. But the Captain of the People Guglielmo Boccanegra, who had wanted it built, was ousted in 1262: the commune stayed there only two years.
The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, managed the Republic's public debt and even came to govern Corsica. In the nineteenth century the abandoned palace was at risk of being demolished to make way for a road, but citizens' protests saved it.
The frescoes facing the sea were first painted by Lazzaro Tavarone in the early seventeenth century. Redone in the twentieth century and then faded again, they were repainted for the Columbus celebrations of 1992, working from the sketches and the few traces that remained.
Built as the city's town hall, it later housed the customs office and the Bank of Saint George, one of the first banks founded in Italy. Since 1903 it has been home to the port authority, and it can be visited by appointment or during exhibitions.
The palace's two sides are two worlds. Facing Sottoripa is the medieval part of 1260: a portico of pointed arches, three- and four-light windows, battlements on top. Above the portal, a lion's head comes from the Venetians' palace in Constantinople, which the Genoese received from the Byzantine emperor.
Facing the sea, on Via della Mercanzia, is the frescoed façade: fake marble, Janus and Neptune and six painted statues of great Genoese, from Andrea Doria to Columbus, around the saint on horseback. At the top, the clock tower.
Inside, a grand staircase leads up to the Sala delle Compere, with statues of the Bank's benefactors in the niches. In the medieval part are the Hall of the Captain of the People and the Manica Lunga, rebuilt in the nineteenth century as people then imagined the Middle Ages.
Within these walls, in 1298, Marco Polo was locked up, taken prisoner after the Battle of Curzola. In almost a year of captivity he dictated his travel memories to his cellmate Rustichello da Pisa: that is how The Travels of Marco Polo came about.
The palace was designed by a monk, Brother Oliverio, when the sea still lapped at its foundations. But the Captain of the People Guglielmo Boccanegra, who had wanted it built, was ousted in 1262: the commune stayed there only two years.
The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, managed the Republic's public debt and even came to govern Corsica. In the nineteenth century the abandoned palace was at risk of being demolished to make way for a road, but citizens' protests saved it.
The frescoes facing the sea were first painted by Lazzaro Tavarone in the early seventeenth century. Redone in the twentieth century and then faded again, they were repainted for the Columbus celebrations of 1992, working from the sketches and the few traces that remained.