Description
The Villa del Principe is the private palace of Andrea Doria, the admiral who in the 16th century ruled Genoa in all but name without ever taking the title. It stands in Fassolo, just outside the old walls towards the Lanterna, and keeps frescoed halls, tapestries and an Italian garden.
The jewel is the Loggia of the Heroes, decorated by Perino del Vaga, a pupil of Raphael, with the Doria ancestors on the walls and the Roman Virtues on the vaults: a cycle already famous when it was painted, so much so that Vasari wrote about it. Perino del Vaga and his assistants worked here from 1529 to 1533.
In the Hall of the Giants, the room for feasts and banquets, a single, daring composition on the vault shows the Fall of the Giants. This is where Charles V's throne was placed when the emperor was a guest, and on the walls hang the 15th-century Tapestries of Alexander the Great, woven in Flanders.
In the princess's apartment, the Hall of Neptune is lined with the tapestries of the Battle of Lepanto, woven in Brussels and brought to Genoa in 1591, still hanging in the place they were made for. Then comes the long Galleria Aurea, named after its gilding of old, with portraits of the early Dorias.
Towards the sea opens the Italian garden, with the Fountain of Triton by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and the large Fountain of Neptune by the Carlone. The park once reached all the way to the prince's private pier; the railway, the cruise terminal and roads have cut it off from the water.
Andrea Doria had freed Genoa from the French in 1528, arriving with thirteen galleys, and had turned down the lordship the city offered him. He preferred to live here, outside the walls and far from the Palazzo Ducale, while still holding the strings of power.
The villa thus became the Republic's only true court: it hosted Charles V in 1529 and 1533, Philip II of Spain in 1548 and, centuries later, Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Verdi. The chronicles tell of feasts on the sea, jousts and fireworks.
In the park on the hillside stood an eight-metre statue of Jupiter that the Genoese called “the Giant”. At its feet lay buried Roldano, Andrea Doria's favourite dog. The railway and then a large hotel took over that garden, and the statue, by then crumbling, was demolished in 1939.
To fill the fountains an artificial lake was even created on the hill: today it has dried up, but it still gives its name to the Lagaccio district.
The jewel is the Loggia of the Heroes, decorated by Perino del Vaga, a pupil of Raphael, with the Doria ancestors on the walls and the Roman Virtues on the vaults: a cycle already famous when it was painted, so much so that Vasari wrote about it. Perino del Vaga and his assistants worked here from 1529 to 1533.
In the Hall of the Giants, the room for feasts and banquets, a single, daring composition on the vault shows the Fall of the Giants. This is where Charles V's throne was placed when the emperor was a guest, and on the walls hang the 15th-century Tapestries of Alexander the Great, woven in Flanders.
In the princess's apartment, the Hall of Neptune is lined with the tapestries of the Battle of Lepanto, woven in Brussels and brought to Genoa in 1591, still hanging in the place they were made for. Then comes the long Galleria Aurea, named after its gilding of old, with portraits of the early Dorias.
Towards the sea opens the Italian garden, with the Fountain of Triton by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and the large Fountain of Neptune by the Carlone. The park once reached all the way to the prince's private pier; the railway, the cruise terminal and roads have cut it off from the water.
Andrea Doria had freed Genoa from the French in 1528, arriving with thirteen galleys, and had turned down the lordship the city offered him. He preferred to live here, outside the walls and far from the Palazzo Ducale, while still holding the strings of power.
The villa thus became the Republic's only true court: it hosted Charles V in 1529 and 1533, Philip II of Spain in 1548 and, centuries later, Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Verdi. The chronicles tell of feasts on the sea, jousts and fireworks.
In the park on the hillside stood an eight-metre statue of Jupiter that the Genoese called “the Giant”. At its feet lay buried Roldano, Andrea Doria's favourite dog. The railway and then a large hotel took over that garden, and the statue, by then crumbling, was demolished in 1939.
To fill the fountains an artificial lake was even created on the hill: today it has dried up, but it still gives its name to the Lagaccio district.