Balilla was the nickname of Giovanni Battista Perasso (1735–1781), a Genoese boy who, according to tradition, started the revolt of 1746 [ it ] against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession by throwing a stone at an Austrian official.
103-539: The word Balilla is thought to mean "little boy" and is thus one of only two clues about Perasso's age (the other being an Austrian report that makes reference to "a little boy" throwing stones at officials). Legend asserts that while some Austrian soldiers were dragging an artillery piece along a muddy road in the Portoria neighbourhood of Genoa, the piece got stuck in a moat. The soldiers forced onlookers and passers-by to dislodge it, cursing and lashing them. Disgusted by
206-480: A hotel since the early 2000s. On the facade of No. 6 stands the recently restored plaque in memory of Luigi Arnaldo Vassallo , better known by the pseudonym Gandolin. The street named after Baron Andrea Podestà, several times mayor of Genoa between 1866 and 1895, during the period of nineteenth-century urban expansion, connects Piazza Alessi, and then Via Corsica, to the Acquasola area and Piazza Corvetto, passing over
309-520: A period photo. Right: A. Botta Adorno Old Portoria is known for the uprising of the Genoese against the Austro-Piedmontese army, which occupied the city under the control of Minister Plenipotentiary Antoniotto Botta Adorno , on December 5, 1746. The initiator of the uprising was a young boy, a century later identified as Giovan Battista Perasso , known as Balilla. The episode is set in the context of
412-596: A symbol of the struggle of the Italian people for independence and unification . Conversely, accounts of the sack of Genoa by Royal Piedmontese troops in 1849 mention soldiers running through the streets and shouting, "Genoese people are all Balilla , they do not deserve compassion, we must kill them all!". Later on, Italy's Fascist Government named the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), a school-grade scouting-paramilitary youth organization , after him. Accordingly,
515-501: A symbol of their prestige wanted to build at the top of the hill the great basilica of S. Maria Assunta, which still characterizes the landscape profile of the district. After the very first ascent of a balloon in Paris on June 15, 1783 the same event was successfully repeated in Carignano on January 14, 1784 in front of the palace of Marquis Vincenzo Spinola. The balloon, as the chronicles of
618-475: Is a residential district in the center of Genoa , administratively included in Municipio I Centro Est. Located on a hill at an average elevation of 50 m above sea level , it was formerly part of the sestiere of Portoria , one of the six administrative subdivisions that formed the city of Genoa. The hill of Carignano, the last eastern offshoot of the hilly circle enclosing Genoa's historic center, overlooks
721-456: Is a tree-lined avenue, opened in 1880, which runs north-south connecting all the streets of the nineteenth-century urbanization and ends at the sea with the square named after St. Francis of Assisi , a belvedere overlooking the port area and the fairgrounds, commonly known as the Via Corsica roundabout. At the other end of the street is Piazza Galeazzo Alessi, a junction between various streets in
824-709: The War of the Austrian Succession , in which the Republic of Genoa found itself involved alongside the French and Spanish against the Duchy of Savoy and Austria . In September 1746 the Austrians under General Botta Adorno had occupied the city. On December 5, a squadron of Austrian soldiers was found crossing the streets of the district dragging a heavy mortar into the street of Portoria that
927-778: The "Andrea Doria" barracks of the Italian Army . At the top of the slope, in the small Piazza S. Leonardo stands the 17th-century complex of Sant'Ignazio, which houses one of the two Genoese branches of the State Archives. Along the slope was once the home-workshop of the Piola family, famous painters of the Baroque period. Here around the end of the seventeenth century under the guidance of Domenico Piola many artists of various disciplines worked, creating works of art destined for churches, convents, confraternities and wealthy private homes. Until
1030-504: The 10th century it is mentioned as Caliniano , but over time the toponyms Cariniano , Cavignano and Calignano are also attested. The district of Carignano, once part of the Portoria district, is one of the "urban units" into which the Municipio I Centro Est of the city of Genoa is divided and occupies an area between the Barbarossa walls and the sixteenth-century city wall, bordered to
1133-489: The 14th to the 18th century gravitated around the many corporations that had their headquarters in the historic cores, outside the city walls, that had sprung up in the Middle Ages on ecclesiastical land holdings. Another important landmark of the neighborhood were the two hospital complexes of Pammatone and Incurabili, active from the late 15th century until the early decades of the 20th century. Urban planning operations in
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#17328595061391236-496: The 18th-century bridge over Via Madre di Dio, originate from the square. From the apse of the basilica radially branch off the streets along which the urbanization of the neighborhood developed in the 19th century: Via Rivoli (1852), Via Nino Bixio (1874), and Via Galeazzo Alessi (1848). Salita Fieschi, ancient print with the rosy elevation of the temple at the top. Via Fieschi, which connects Piazza Carignano to Piazza Dante and Via XX Settembre , straight and steeply sloping,
1339-675: The 18th-century church of the Rimedio, the church and former convent of S. Andrea, which was turned into a prison, and the entire section of the Barbarossa walls between Porta Soprana and Porta Aurea. With the 1931 plan, by which the entire hamlet of Ponticello was demolished, of the two mansions on either side of "vico dritto Ponticello," only the Colombo house was spared. Carignano (Genoa) Carignano ( Caignan , Carignan or Cavignan in Ligurian )
1442-547: The 1920s, when activities and furnishings were transferred to the new St. Martin's Hospital, but by 1841 most of the psychiatric patients had already been transferred to the new asylum built in the San Vincenzo area. Half-destroyed by bombs in World War II , what remained of the complex was demolished in the 1960s, when the modern business and commercial district of Piccapietra was built. Left: Balilla's statue in
1545-486: The 1970s. A short section of Via Madre di Dio remains, corresponding to the stretch shown in the image opposite, used as a junction between the Via D'Annunzio tunnel and Corso Quadrio. The street was inhabited by working class people, and most of the men worked in the port. Numerous and busy were the osterie , the men's meeting place mainly for playing cards or morra . Voices, shouts and noises resounded from dawn until late in
1648-567: The 19th century the street was characterized by elegant buildings with showy hanging verandas full of statues. With the renovations of the Via Madre di Dio district carried out in the 1970s downstream from the street, the modern executive district called the Center of Ligurians sprang up, in which the offices of the Region of Liguria and management centers of major companies have found their place. Via Corsica
1751-424: The 19th-century district. Near Piazzale S. Francesco in 2018 the monument to Raffaele De Ferrari, by Giulio Monteverde , was relocated, once near Piazza del Principe, from where it had been removed in 1989 for traffic reasons and for many years abandoned, not without controversy, in a city hall storage room. Halfway down Via Corsica, in the square named after shipowner Rocco Piaggio, is the monument to Nino Bixio ,
1854-403: The Acquasola esplanade and Piazza Corvetto, completing its integration into the city road system. The implementation of the urban redevelopment plan for Via Madre di Dio caused the disappearance of the birth house of the famous composer and violinist Niccolò Paganini , which was located at No. 38 Passo Gattamora, in the tangle of caruggi between Via dei Servi and Via del Colle. The house
1957-530: The Annunciation of the Observant Friars Minor, a very solemn thing. And adjoining the monastery is a great hospital, ample and large, in which there are more than one hundred and thirty beds; and where the sick are well cared for. And in the street called Portoria there is a small hospital built in our time for the incurably ill; and besides the fact that the building is large and beautiful, the order of
2060-666: The Cappuccine walls, once a historic viewing station of the Mura del Prato, also called Fronti Basse, the mighty embankments in the plain of the Bisagno that connected the sea fortifications with the seventeenth-century city walls, is an important lookout over the Piazza della Vittoria below, with a backdrop of the Albaro and Monte hills. At the outlet of the seaside streets, the traffic circle of Via Corsica,
2163-484: The Carignano urban unit alone. In the Middle Ages , the area of the present district was a very large hill, outside the first city walls (it would be incorporated only with the 14th-century expansions); although it was a short distance from the city center, it was a secluded area accessed only through steep alleys (Salita dei Sassi, Salita S. Leonardo, Salita della Montagnola dei Servi), with vegetable gardens, peasant houses, patrician villas, churches and monasteries. At
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#17328595061392266-754: The Giovine Italia knoll, and the garden of Villa Croce offer panoramic views of the harbor from the Calata delle Grazie to the International Fair, the causeway, and the sea ring road. The center of the district is the large square in front of the basilica of S. Maria Assunta, dominated by the grandiose bulk of the sacred building commissioned by the Sauli family, one of Galeazzo Alessi 's first Genoese works. Via Fieschi, which runs straight down to Piazza Dante, and Via Eugenia Ravasco , which connects Carignano to Sarzano via
2369-536: The Italian National anthem , " Il Canto degli Italiani ", composed in 1847: " I bimbi d'Italia / si chiaman Balilla " ("The children of Italy / are all named Balilla "). Two Italian navy submarines were named Balilla : [REDACTED] Media related to Giovan Battista Perasso at Wikimedia Commons Portoria Portoria ( Portöia /puɾˈtɔːja/ in Ligurian ) is a central district of Genoa , administratively included in Municipio I Centro Est. It
2472-526: The Mura delle Cappuccine and Via Vannucci (toward the Foce), and the sea ring road (Corso Saffi and Corso Quadrio) toward the fairgrounds and the port. As of December 31, 2017, the total population of the former Portoria district had a population of 12,514, of which 7,252 were in the “urban unit” of Carignano alone. Available historical data cover the Portoria constituency as a whole, with the two urban units of “ S. Vincenzo ” and “Carignano.” The demographic history of
2575-497: The Ponte Monumentale, along the route of the sixteenth-century Santa Chiara walls. The road offers a panoramic view of the San Vincenzo area and the hills of the lower Val Bisagno, while from the Ponte Monumentale one can see nice views of Via XX Settembre below. The "Sea Ring Road" was opened in the last decade of the 19th century with fills along the cliffs that lapped the sea walls. The road, which offers panoramic views of
2678-402: The Portoria area and were the main point of reference for urban health care for several centuries. At that time, in various Italian cities numerous wealthy people, moved by religious faith or simply by the desire to contribute to the good of the city, donated part of their wealth for interventions in favor of the neediest people. These charitable initiatives sought to intervene within the limits of
2781-428: The Portoria area are some of the main streets and squares of downtown Genoa: Piazza De Ferrari , Piazza Dante, Piazza Corvetto, part of the very central Via XX Settembre , the main artery of Genoa's commercial area, and Via Roma. The name derives from the presence of a gate in the so-called Barbarossa walls for having been built in the 12th century, around 1155, in view of the approaching German emperor . This gate
2884-470: The San Vincenzo urban unit alone. Commonly today the name of Portoria refers to the neighborhood of Piccapietra, in the heart of the modern city, but its history is ancient: before wartime destruction and, above all, building speculation wiped out the old artisans' houses, caruggi and small squares, uprooting its population, it was a kind of socio-linguistic enclave. The history of the neighborhood from
2987-536: The Soprana and Aurea gates were part; in the 14th century some nuclei of houses were built to accommodate the artisan classes; in the same period a new ring of walls encompassed these settlements as well. These urban cores from the late Middle Ages until the eighteenth century were home to numerous corporations , among which emerged that of the Dyers, after whom an alley in the old quarter was also named, which disappeared with
3090-560: The Vacca, although it belonged to the same ring of walls; but it was defended by two towers that still existed in 1723." Historically, the Portoria sestiere included the area between the Barbarossa walls and the sixteenth-century city wall, consisting of the Rivo Torbido valley and the Carignano hill. The Rivo Torbido is a short stream (since the 16th century entirely covered) that originates from
3193-468: The aedicule with the “Madonna and Child” present on the facade of the house, preserved in the St. Augustine Museum. Public gardens, officially named “Baltimore Gardens,” in homage to the U.S. city twinned with Genoa, but commonly referred to as “plastic gardens,” were created on part of this area, left free of buildings. The main events that characterized the district in the twentieth century are mainly related to
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3296-472: The ancient family of artists. Branching off from Salita S. Leonardo is Via dei Sansone, a secluded and quiet " creuza ," once an access avenue to the convent of San Leonardo. The narrow street takes its name from an ancient family of Savona origin who had their homes here. It was a long alley that connected Piazza Carignano to the ancient church of San Giacomo, passing between patrician villas, peasant houses, and cultivated fields. Between 1860 and 1880 with
3399-545: The anthem of the ONB began with the verse " Fischia il sasso... " ("The stone whistles..."). Several types of the Fiat 508 car, produced during the 1930s, were also named for Balilla (Fiat 508 Balilla, Fiat 508S Balilla Coppa d'Oro, Fiat 508 Balilla Sport, Fiat 508 Balilla Spider Militare). An Italian fighter plane designed in 1917, the Ansaldo A.1 , was named Balilla. He is also mentioned in
3502-520: The base of the Piacentini Tower , begins Via D'Annunzio , which runs through the entire modern business district to the Sea Ring Road, roughly following the route of the ancient Via dei Servi and Via Madre di Dio. The street has two levels, a covered pedestrian walkway and an underlying two-lane highway connecting Corso M. Quadrio and the causeway to the city center. At the edge of Via D'Annunzio, on
3605-485: The care of the chronically and mentally ill. Initially designed to take in patients with syphilis , a sexually transmitted disease that had begun to spread in Europe in those very years, in the decades following its foundation epileptics and the mentally ill were also admitted there. The large complex, into which the 13th-century church of St. Columbanus and the adjoining convent were also incorporated, functioned until
3708-411: The center of a bitter controversy between “restorers” and “innovators,” deliberately rejected restyling operations, choosing the path of total renovation of building structures. On the other hand, it should be considered that the redevelopment of blighted areas resulted in the expulsion of the poor classes that inhabited them, an aspect often neglected in the debate among architects but generally felt by
3811-514: The citizens, very charming, adorned with magnificent buildings and splendid houses; the palace of the Count of Fiesco with the church of the Assumption of Our Lady, under the title of S. Maria Inviolata, which is de jure patronatus the property of the nobles of Fiesco; and it has good incomes. There is also the convent of S. Bernardo, vulgarly called "le monachette", and the convent of S. Leonardo, where live
3914-440: The complex was demolished in the 1960s; the new Palace of Justice was built on the site of the 18th-century building, which preserves the colonnaded courtyard, the monumental staircase of the old hospital and some statues of benefactors inside. The " Ospedale degli Incurabili " or " dei Cronici ," popularly called " Spedaletto ," was founded by Ettore Vernazza in 1499; for four centuries it was Genoa's most important institution for
4017-460: The conservatory of the Daughters of St. Joseph, founded by Ettore Vernazza in the 16th century, with the church of the same name, built in 1606, the oratory of S. Giacomo delle Fucine and a section of the historic city aqueduct, including the canal-bridge that crossed Salita S. Caterina. The opening of Via XX Settembre and the subsequent enlargement of Piazza De Ferrari resulted in the disappearance of
4120-476: The construction first of Via Rivoli and then of Via Corsica it remained divided into two sections. Of the alley remains the section from Via Corsica to the basilica of Carignano, which passes by Villa Sauli. The part from Via Corsica to the Poggio della Giovine Italia since World War II has been named Via Galimberti. Via Madre di Dio, named after the church of the same name, was one of the most characteristic streets in
4223-581: The contribution of numerous benefactors, and in particular of the noblewoman Anna Maria Pallavicini, who with a bequest of 125,000 Genoese liras allowed the work to begin. At the beginning of the 20th century, activities and functions were transferred to the new San Martino Hospital, and the old Pammatone building became home to the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Genoa . Almost completely destroyed by bombing in World War II , what remained of
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4326-566: The coolness in Carignano: Se sciù ro ponte andemmo/lì regna l'allegria./Gh'è bona compagnia/tutti govendo stan. Police reports dated 1749 reveal that the first Genoese Masonic meetings were held in some houses in Carignano, news that is also reported in the text of a lecture held in the “Trionfo Ligure” Lodge, entitled “The Trionfo Ligure Lodge and Genoese Freemasonry in the History of the City,” which
4429-465: The creation of an elliptical square with the basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption in the center, with a series of streets arranged in a radial pattern around it. In practice, the urbanistic constructions, which began only from the middle of the century, were inspired by this plan, but in a fragmentary and episodic way. Instead of villas, dwellings were built for upper middle-class elites, but some settlements of council houses also found their place; in 1878
4532-402: The demolition of numerous buildings. Tracing the route of this road, Via XX Settembre would be built at the end of the 19th century. In 1684 the primitive 15th-century neighborhood was almost completely destroyed by French naval bombardment and shortly rebuilt with state assistance. Between the 15th and 16th centuries the two hospitals mentioned by Giustiniani, now disappeared, were built in
4635-414: The demolitions of the twentieth century. This is how Giustiniani , a bishop and historian, described the area in his "Annals" in the early sixteenth century: In this parish of the city there are seven hundred and forty houses, almost all of them belonging to the common people, as if in ancient times this region had been a suburb outside the city. And in a district called Richeme, there is the monastery of
4738-530: The district of "Portoria," subdivided into the "urban units" of "San Vincenzo" and " Carignano ," both of which are now included in the Municipio I Centro Est. The Portoria area proper comprises an irregular quadrilateral with Piazza Corvetto, Piazza De Ferrari, Piazza Dante and the Monumental Bridge at its vertices. It is bordered to the west by the Molo and Maddalena districts, to the east by San Vincenzo , to
4841-401: The end of the nineteenth century the Piola descendants had possession of the house, and later still for many years the modern palace that had replaced the previous building, destroyed during the war, continued to be called “ casa dei Piola .” The doorway of the new building retains the marble architrave and imposts of the old palace, while on the facade a fresco by Aldo Bosco (1954) recalls
4944-423: The evening, as recounted by the poet Steva De Franchi, who thus described the atmosphere of the neighborhood in the eighteenth century: “My daughter! Here there is no peace, neither by day nor by night. A thousand voices resound from morning, as soon as dawn comes, until evening. To dazzle you, the milkwoman begins to shout: pure milk...,” concluding, after recalling gradually all the artisans and vendors who enlivened
5047-622: The family, the Fieschis lost their properties in Carignano: the Senate of the Republic in that same year decreed the total demolition of the sumptuous Fieschi palace, which had been built around 1390 next to the aristocratic church of S. Maria in Via Lata. A few years later, around the middle of the sixteenth century, another patrician family, the Sauli, already present on the hill with their own settlement, as
5150-417: The first stone, followed by a shower of cobblestones hurled at the soldiers, who were forced to abandon the mortar and flee. A marble plaque, simply bearing the date December 5, 1746, which survived the urbanistic vicissitudes that led to the destruction of the neighborhood, and is now placed in the center of the roadway at the intersection of Via V Dicembre (the old Portoria street, now renamed in memory of
5253-523: The former district is affected by the urbanistic vicissitudes of the area. The population, 35,877 at the first census in 1861, rose to 40,260 in 1901, a figure representing the "historical maximum." Since then, with the transformation of these former working-class neighborhoods into an area designated for business centers and tertiary activities, a conspicuous population decline began. The population, still 35,007 in 1936, declined to 20,021 in 1961 and 12,514 in 2017, of which 5,262, as already mentioned, were in
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#17328595061395356-491: The former district is affected by the urbanistic vicissitudes of the area. The population, 35,877 at the first census in 1861, rose to 40,260 in 1901, a figure representing the “historical maximum.” Since then, as most of these old districts have been turned over to business centers and tertiary activities, a conspicuous decline in population began. The number of inhabitants, still 35,007 in 1936, declined to 20,021 in 1961 to 12,514 in 2017, of which 7,252, as already mentioned, in
5459-451: The hill is dominated by the imposing basilica of S. Maria Assunta , among Genoa's most valuable buildings of worship, clearly visible from many parts of the city. The origin of the toponym is uncertain: Giustiniani (16th century) suggests it derives from a certain Carinius, a landowner in the 4th century; according to others it would derive from " Caryn Ianum " meaning "villa of Janus ." In
5562-435: The hill of Carignano has several scenic belvederes, overlooking the sea or the eastern part of the city. Carignano's first public promenade was inaugurated in 1724. Following the avenues along the route of the ancient walls, there are several points, at the ancient ramparts along the St. Clare and Cappuccine walls, from which the view sweeps over the city's eastern districts and the lower Bisagno Valley. The scenic promenade of
5665-500: The hill of Multedo (in the area of Piazza Manin, in the Castelletto district) and flows into the sea in the so-called " seno di Giano " (now buried and included in the port area), flowing below Via Palestro, Piazza Corvetto, Via V Dicembre, Piazza Dante and Via Madre di Dio. With the constitution of the districts, in the 20th century, the district of Portoria was merged with that of San Vincenzo, another historic city district, creating
5768-418: The historic day), Via E. Vernazza and Via delle Casacce, indicates the place where this event occurred. A bronze statue depicting Balilla, the work of Vincenzo Giani (1831-1900), was placed in 1862 at the place where the famous episode supposedly took place, near Pammatone Hospital. In the 1960s, with the demolition of the old quarter, the statue was moved to Palazzo Tursi ; after restoration work, in 2001 it
5871-534: The isolation of the area, as it was a private representative route. A proposal made by the Fathers of the Commune to build a public road that would allow the passage of carriages dates back to 1772, and two years later the proposal was implemented. In a poem by dialect poet Steva De Franchi entitled " L'estate ," one can read the proposal made to Minetta, the revendeiroeura de Fossello Minetta Minini, of walking to enjoy
5974-464: The large hospital complex of S. Andrea was built at the behest of the Duchess of Galliera . New roads were built to connect the new residential settlements with the city center. Via Rivoli and Via Corsica were opened in the direction of the Sea Ring Road, Via Fieschi towards Piazza Ponticello; towards the end of the century with the construction of the Monumental Bridge (1895) the district was connected with
6077-404: The last century have systematically destroyed the pre-existing urban and social fabric, leading to the almost total disappearance of the historic nuclei of Piccapietra, Ponticello and Borgo Lanaioli, of which little fragmentary evidence remains in the present district of mainly business and commercial use. Much of the area of today's Portoria district, in pre-Roman times (6th to 3rd centuries B.C.)
6180-489: The main axis of the urban road system today. The street, built by rectifying and widening the existing Via Giulia (in the Portoria district), Via della Consolazione and Via Porta Pila (in the S. Vincenzo district), was characterized from the beginning by Art Nouveau architecture; among the architects who participated in the various designs was the Florentine Gino Coppedè . Almost all the buildings on both sides of
6283-450: The memory of this historical toponymy, in total contrast to the looming modern architecture that surrounds it. Before the nineteenth-century urban development, the hill of Carignano could only be reached by steep cobblestones, the typical Ligurian creuze , some of which, such as Salita San Leonardo, Salita Santa Maria in via Lata, Via San Giacomo di Carignano, and Salita dei Sassi, have partly survived urbanization, although intersected by
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#17328595061396386-453: The modern road system. Almost nothing, however, has remained of the streets and alleys of the Hill area (between Via Madre di Dio and Via del Colle). From the eastern side of Via Fieschi, in the lower section, begins Salita S. Leonardo, which connected Piazza Ponticello with the top of the hill. The slope takes its name from the convent of the same name founded by Bishop Leonardo Fieschi in 1317, now
6489-407: The monument of Portoria instead of an individual hero represents the generous daring of a people who, having reached the height of oppression, broke their chains and claimed their freedom." This is how Casalis describes the sestiere of Portoria shortly before the middle of the 19th century: "Sestiere of Portoria: bordered with the ring of the old walls on the east and south: on the other parts with
6592-579: The mouth of the Bisagno River to the east, while to the south, before the filling in of the sea for the expansion of the port and the construction of the fairgrounds, it overlooked the sea with its rocky coastline. On the hill, once sparsely populated and secluded, stood convents and patrician villas. Its urbanization, which dates back to the second half of the 19th century, transformed the area into one of Genoa's most elegant and upscale residential neighborhoods, along with Albaro and Castelletto . The top of
6695-460: The new century the “ Albergo Popolare ” (1906) and the “ Casa della Gente di Mare ” (1909) were built, intended to accommodate migrants and seafarers in transit in the port of Genoa at popular prices. Both buildings were to be demolished in the 1990s to make way for a parking lot. The "Popular Hotel," which had been converted into a fire station after the war, was demolished with explosive charges on May 12, 1992. Salita Fieschi, ancient print with
6798-462: The north by Castelletto , and to the south by Carignano . The territory of the former Portoria district had a population of 12,514 as of December 31, 2017, of which 5,262 were in the "urban unit" of San Vincenzo alone, which as mentioned also includes the heart of the former Portoria district. Available historical data concern the former Portoria district as a whole, with the two urban units of San Vincenzo and Carignano . The demographic history of
6901-435: The offices of the Region of Liguria , municipal bodies and private companies. In the postwar period, the need had become pressing to create modern workspaces, accessible by roads suitable for the growing automobile traffic and equipped with parking and services. The area chosen for the new settlements was that of the old Borgo Lanaioli, now in a state of decay and largely damaged by bombing. The 1966 "Detailed Plan" completed
7004-474: The old historic center . The street was part of the road axis that connected Ponticello Square to the sea ring road passing under the arches of the Carignano Bridge. From Via Madre di Dio branched a maze of narrow alleys and stairways that connected it to Via Fieschi and Via del Colle, on opposite sides of the Rivo Torbido valley. The district, half-destroyed by World War II bombings, disappeared completely in
7107-408: The old Via Giulia were demolished to build the street. The implementation of the various urban restructuring plans resulted in the disappearance, in addition to many houses, of numerous historic buildings, both civil and religious. Already in the 1870s, with the opening of Via Roma and the parallel Galleria Mazzini, were demolished the 16th-century church of San Sebastiano with the adjoining convent,
7210-439: The plan prepared by architect Carlo Barabino in 1825, aimed at extending the city eastward by overcoming the limits of the medieval city, a real urban revolution began that in little more than a century would completely change the layout of the area, transforming the old workers' and artisans' neighborhood into a business and commercial center. The first interventions, conducted around 1840 by G.B. Resasco, Barabino's successor in
7313-519: The plane of s. Andrea up to Ponticello, and then up to the gate of s. Stefano. It is usually included in the Portoria Sestiere the Academy of Fine Arts and the great Carlo Felice Theater. This sestiere had 31,000 inhabitants in 1837." At this time Portoria was still a working-class neighborhood on the fringes of the historic city, but starting in the middle of the century, with the implementation of
7416-617: The port, the Fair, and the Foce district along its route, is formed by Corso Maurizio Quadrio and Corso Aurelio Saffi . The western section, corso Maurizio Quadrio, originally named after Prince Oddone of Savoy , runs from the Mura delle Grazie to the Cava crossing the area of the " seno di Giano ," buried in the late 19th century, where the "sailor's house" and the Albergo Popolare stood. Corso Aurelio Saffi
7519-457: The possibilities of the time to alleviate situations of infirmity caused by the difficult living conditions of the poor, who constituted the majority of the population. In the wake of this tradition are the figures of Bartolomeo Bosco and Ettore Vernazza, founders of the Pammatone and "degli Incurabili" hospitals, respectively. Pammatone Hospital, for nearly five centuries the city's main hospital,
7622-524: The primitive settlement had formed. On this area, which remained outside the first city walls, first emerged (9th century) the Abbey of St. Stephen , to which a vast landed property owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of San Colombano of Bobbio belonged; the first houses were built in the middle of the 12th century when the town was provided with a new ring of walls, known as the Barbarossa walls, of which
7725-405: The public, a reason why the radical urban redevelopment was seen by many Genoese above all as the disintegration of an established social fabric, of a popular world that disappeared along with the old houses, replaced by cold modern architecture. Many years later, it is not uncommon that the terms havoc and speculation are still used to define these urbanistic operations. Because of its location,
7828-416: The regulars of S. Chiara, with another small church built by the Sauli in honor of S. Sebastiano; and near the church of Servi, below, seven houses of plebeians belonging to this parish. And at the head of the promontory to the sea are quarried rocks and stones for the construction of the wharf. In 1547, after Gianluigi Fieschi's failed conspiracy against Andrea Doria , with the consequent political decline of
7931-478: The role of civic architect, concerned the San Vincenzo area. The first intervention in the Portoria area, around 1870, was the opening of Via Roma and Piazza Corvetto to create a link between the city center and the new residential neighborhoods that had sprung up a few years earlier in the Castelletto area, but a real turning point came towards the end of the century, with the construction of Via XX Settembre , still
8034-403: The rosy elevation of the temple at the top. The old working-class blocks of flats in Via Madre di Dio, Via dei Servi and Via del Colle (Cheullia), in a state of decay for some time, partly damaged or destroyed by the bombing of World War II , with the systematic application of the urban plan carried out between 1969 and 1973 disappeared completely to make way for modern business centers, housing
8137-535: The scene, Perasso allegedly grabbed a stone from the road and skilfully threw it at the Austrian patrol, asking his fellow citizens in the Genoese dialect : " Che l'inçe? " ("Am I to begin?" or "Shall I start?"), which set in motion an uproar which eventually caused the Austrian garrison to be evicted from the city. The phrase became proverbial in Italian as well. For his supposed age and revolutionary activity, Perasso became
8240-519: The secluded and stately hilltop, the village of Lanaioli, on the banks of the Rio Torbido, where weavers from the Fontanabuona valley lived from the 12th century onward, was, along with Ponticello and Piccapietra, one of the historic working-class agglomerations of the Portoria district; like these it was demolished in the 1970s to build the new business centers. Via Madre di Dio, which became a symbol of
8343-516: The service is so beautiful that people from Rome and from many other principal cities have come to take notes from this little hospital; and the Genoese themselves have gone to Rome to administer such a place. In the seventeenth century, Strada Giulia was opened in the district, widening the previous "Strada Felice" and creating the first vehicular connection between the center of Genoa and the lower Val Bisagno. The opening of this road, seven meters wide, an exceptional measure for those times, necessitated
8446-533: The sestiere of Portoria, was and is nevertheless, although reduced, on the plane called Piccapietra, because it was a locality inhabited by stone workers, stonemasons, sailors, etc. The gateway was so named because there, from S. Matteo, came the property of the Dorias; then from the activity exercised by many of the inhabitants it was also called the Piccapietra. It did not have the monumental forms of those of S. Andrea and
8549-551: The sestieri of the Molo and Maddalena. It contains the two collegiate churches of Carignano and Rimedio; the abbey of Fieschi; four parishes, s. Stefano, s. Giacomo, s. Andrea and SS. Salvatore; the Spedale grande, the Spedale degl'incurabili; the conservatory of s. Giuseppe and that of s. Bernardo in Carignano. The religious houses are, that of the PP. gesuiti in s. Ambrogio; that of the PP. ministers of
8652-670: The sick, and a third of the servites. There are three monasteries of nuns, St. Sebastian's, the Capuchins and those of Jesus Crucified. Nor shall we forget ... the Acquasola promenade. The prisons are on the premises of St. Andrew's. The main streets are: via Giulia; via s. Giuseppe, leveled after 1816, called the devil's crêuza; via di Portoria, famous in the war of 1746; salita di s. Catterina, adorned with noble buildings, enlarged, flattened, remodeled several times after 1816, and lately paved (1840) with excellent expediency, via di s. Ambrogio, which has humble houses on one side, straight street from
8755-486: The slope towards Via del Colle, where there were once historic alleys, hills and small squares with characteristic names (Vico Pomogranato, Salita Boccafò, Vico Gattamora, Vico Fosse del Colle, Piazzetta dei Librai, Piazzetta Lavatoi del Colle, to name a few) a green area has been created, the so-called Park of the Walls of Barbarossa (the already mentioned Baltimore Gardens or “plastic gardens”), which preserves in some of its paths
8858-450: The time narrate, which was made of goldbeater's skin, rose to the height of three hundred toises (about five hundred meters) and disappeared beyond the hills of Albaro . In the eighteenth century the Sauli family had the Carignano bridge built, which bypassed the densely inhabited valley of the Rivo Torbido (Via Madre di Dio, Via dei Servi) and reached Sarzano. The construction of the bridge, at least initially, did not contribute to breaking
8961-549: The top of the hill was since the 14th century a settlement of the Fieschi family , who had built the church of S. Maria in via Lata there. The presence of the Fieschi ceased around the middle of the 16th century due to the political decline of this powerful family. Still around the middle of the 17th century it was a resort of Genoese patrician families, with many sumptuous villas surrounded by vegetable gardens and orchards. In contrast to
9064-417: The urban redevelopment of Via Madre di Dio and surrounding areas. A first significant intervention in the “Marina” area had been carried out towards the end of the nineteenth century, with the burying of the “Seno di Giano” to create Corso Principe Oddone (since 1946 renamed Corso Maurizio Quadrio). The characteristic “ scoglio Campana ” thus disappeared. On the area removed from the sea in the first decade of
9167-489: The urban renewal begun in the 1930s with the creation of Piazza Dante, creating, close to the Piacentini Tower , a large building designed by Marco Dasso, called the "Center of the Ligurians," stretched toward the sea along the Rivo Torbido valley, opposed to which another office building, characterized by pink artificial stone cladding, designed by Franco Albini and Franca Helg , was built. Architect Dasso's intervention, at
9270-493: The urban upheavals of the twentieth century, was one of the liveliest streets in Genoa's historic center . Giustiniani , a bishop and historian , described the area in his “Annals” in the early sixteenth century as follows: Carignano is an area on a hill that extends to the sea, forming a promontory. And it was all this region, villa of a Roman citizen named Carino, from whom it got its name: and there are fifty gardens or villas of
9373-451: The west by the Molo , to the east by the Foce, to the north by Portoria, and to the south by the port area . The "urban unit" of Carignano includes two distinct areas, both morphologically as well as historically and urbanistically: The boundaries of the Carignano area are: Via della Marina and Via del Colle toward the Pier, Piazza Dante and Via Porta degli Archi toward Portoria, Corso Podestà,
9476-506: The work of Guido Galletti, erected in 1952 to replace the 19th-century one by Enrico Pazzi, which was destroyed by bombing in 1940. The Church of the Sacred Heart and St. James of Carignano ( Luigi Rovelli , 1898) overlooks this square. At No. 4 Via Corsica was the headquarters of Italsider . The massive gray-green marble building that housed the offices of the historic steel company, designed in 1931 by Giuseppe Crosa di Vergagni, has housed
9579-461: Was called Porta Aurea, or Porta d'Oria (because it was located at the limits of the Doria family 's property), a name that in contraction into Genoese became Portóia . Its remains, consisting of the entrance arch and the two towers, which were cut off in the 18th century, were demolished in the early 1960s with the urban restructuring of the entire neighborhood. "The Porta Aurea, which gave its name to
9682-418: Was demolished in 1971 despite the fact that the local press and public opinion had clearly spoken out for its preservation. The lively controversy aroused by the demolition was not entirely quelled over time, as attested by a plaque affixed near the place where it stood, along with the original one recovered from the rubble, the text of which was written by Anton Giulio Barrili , and a small bas-relief depicting
9785-405: Was founded in 1422 by Bartolomeo Bosco. From 1471, by the will of the Senate of the Republic , it was destined to replace the many small hospitals scattered around the city. Between 1478 and 1510 Catherine of Genoa lived at the hospital, devoting herself to the care of the sick and the administration of the facility, of which she was also the director. The hospital was enlarged in 1758 with
9888-484: Was held on November 18, 1970. The text was later published as a pamphlet and freely distributed, and it said precisely that the first reports of Freemasons in Genoa dated back to 1749 and that Freemasons met in two houses in Carignano under the name "Company of Happiness." The centuries-old isolation of the district came to an end in the second half of the nineteenth century. Barabino 's urban plan, as early as 1825, called for
9991-518: Was instead a young man of the same name from Montoggio , in the Genoese hinterland, born in 1729, but there are no documents attesting to either of these identities, as stated in 1927 by the Società Ligure di Storia Patria , reiterating what had already been expressed by Neri and Donaver at the end of the nineteenth century. "In fact no document proves who was the initiator of that memorable uprising, and therefore I will say along with Neri, that
10094-525: Was occupied by a vast necropolis that stretched from the Piano di Sant'Andrea to the hill of the same name and to the area where the church of St. Stephen would later be built. The remains of these burials came to light during work on the construction of Via XX Settembre. The tombs, similar to Etruscan tombs, testify to the Etruscan presence guarding the port inlet, located along the route to Marseille , around which
10197-409: Was one of the sestieri into which the city of Genoa was anciently divided. Its name is linked to the revolt against the Austrians on December 5, 1746 , which began with the famous Balilla episode. For centuries a working-class and suburban neighborhood, although included within the city walls , with the urban expansion of the late 19th century it became the center of the modern city. Included in
10300-573: Was opened in 1868 on the areas formerly belonging to the powerful Genoese family . Its route, already envisioned in Barabino 's plan, initially ran from Carignano Square to Ponticello Square. In 1934 the terminal part, with the demolition of the Ponticello district, was extended to Via XX Settembre. The street intersected the ancient stairway of Santa Maria via Lata, which descended to the Lanaioli suburb. In
10403-678: Was originally a coastal street that went to the walls of the Strega alla Cava, skirting the ancient cemetery located near the mouth of the Bisagno River, which was abandoned around the middle of the nineteenth century after the Staglieno cemetery was built. For the widening of the street in 1891, the Oratory of the Souls in Purgatory, which stood next to the ancient burial place, was also demolished. In Piazza Dante, at
10506-498: Was rearranged in its original location, in front of the Palace of Justice, albeit in a completely changed urban context. Although it is historically established that the initiator of the revolt had been a boy, there is no historical confirmation of his identity. The very young hero of the uprising more than a century later was identified by some as Giovan Battista Perasso , a boy from the neighborhood, born in 1735; according to others, it
10609-401: Was to be moved from the heights of Carignano to another strategic point for the control of the city. The road, perhaps muddy from the rain, sank under the weight of the mortar, and the soldiers asked the locals for help, swearing at them in a bad way; when a sergeant raised a stick against a man to make him obey, the revolt began. Shouting " Che l'inse? " (i.e., "Shall I start?"), a boy threw
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