Things to do in Genoa, Liguria: The Best Museums

Palazzo Tursi Since 2004, the Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi – the three historical, municipally-owned stately homes in the 16th-century Strada Nuova – constitute a continuous exhibition devoted to ancient art: the Museums of Strada Nuova. The Palazzo Rosso, historical residence of the Brignole Sale family, and the Palazzo Bianco, a prestigious art gallery, have been open to the public since the end of the 19th century; the Palazzo Tursi, the seat of the Municipality, hosts a museum as well as cultural and official events. Joint in a continuous exhibition path, the three buildings retain their own specific historical features and collections, transforming the Strada Nuova into a real ‘museum-street’: a masterpiece of the Genoese architectural and residential tradition, with a cultural establishment unique in size, features, quality and prestige. The Museums of Strada Nuova also provide cafeteria services and bookshops.

Villa del Principe - Palazzo di Andrea Doria is the richest and most sumptuos noble household of the city of Genoa, the Villa of the only Prince Genoa ever had. It was 1529 when Andrea Doria, skilful admiral and legendary man of arms, began the constructions that would have lead to the rise of this wonderful Villa overlooking the Gulf of Genoa. To live its splendour once again it is sufficient to stroll through its halls, in wonder in front of its amazing fresco paintings and incredible tapestries.

The Museum of World Cultures is housed in the Castello D’Albertis, home of captain Enrico Alberto D’Albertis, its creator. After travelling by sea and land between the 19th-20th centuries, the Captain’s home collects pieces of his world in a romantic setting between “Chambers of Wonder” and colonial trophies. His castle testifies to the strong fascination that the distant worlds he had visited exerted on his soul, permeated with Genoese traditions and the love for the sea, as well as curiosity about the unknown and the unventured. But there is more. At the entry of the 16th-century bastion, on which the castle was built, starts a second exhibition, where archaeological and ethnographic pieces are displayed through the dialogue with the peoples who produced them, thus giving voice to multiple perspectives and making our certainties relative. The Castello D’Albertis is not only the home of Captain D’Albertis but our own house.

Since 1993, the museum is located in Nervi, in the 18th-century Villa Grimaldi Fassio, acquired by the Municipality of Genoa in 1979. The important collections of 19th-20th-century art of the Frugone brothers include paintings, sculptures and drawings by Italian and foreign artists from the second half of the 19th and early-20th century. Among others, Bistolfi, Fontanesi, Mancini, Messina, Segantini, Signorini, Boldini, Rubino, Milesi, Tito, Michetti and Sorolla y Bastida.

First based on the collection of the Prince Oddone of Savoy and subsequent bequeaths and purchases, the Gallery is housed in the 16th-century Villa Saluzzo in Nervi, with over 2,500 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings from the beginning of the 19th century up to the present day. Many artists are featured, including Nicolò Barabino, Ernesto Rayper, Alfredo D’Andrade, Vincenzo Cabianca, Plinio Nomellini, Rubaldo Merello, Fortunato Depero, Felice Casorati, Filippo De Pisis, Francesco Messina, Eugenio Baroni, Arturo Martini, Renato Guttuso, Mario Mafai, Corrado Cagli.