Via Garibaldi and its museums

Via Garibaldi, the “Strada Nuova” of the mid XVI century, also called the “street of gold”, with its splendid palaces, is one of most interesting streets in the world from an architectural point of view. Opened after 1550 to collect the most important families of the city in one unitary environment, it was originally named for the splendour of its buildings “the street of gold” and then for centuries “the new street of palaces” until, at the end of the 1800’s the municipality decided to name it after the national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi.
In effect this street is a complex anthology that repeats in renaissance key, and on a particularly grandiose scale, that constant privatistic character that is present right from the most distant origins of medieval Genova and because of which the great families of the city have always aspired to group themselves in quarters ever more grandiose for architectural splendour and magnificence.  Rubens was so amazed by these palaces and by their modernity that he brought their designs together in a book so that they could be an example for the great families of Anversa.
Today its 14 palaces host the Municipality, important banks, clubs, cultural associations, antique dealers, shops, and public and private offices.
Via Garibaldi is the ideal staring point for a visit to the historic centre which is the biggest in Italy and Europe, after Venice, and which overall has arrived intact to the present day.   

In via Garibaldi two of the main picture-gallery in the city – the gallery at Palazzo Bianco and the gallery at Palazzo Rosso (White palace and Red palace named so because of their external façades) – which together with Palazzo Doria Tursi, the offices of the municipality, make up the node of museums in the New Street.
Completely pedestrian and made even more fascinating by a series of works carried out in 2004 and by striking decorations of combinations of lights, Via Garibaldi/Strada Nuova is today one of the classic streets for a Sunday stroll and a tourist destination that cannot be set aside.   
On the 13th of July, 2006, - along with the whole system of the Rolli palaces – it was included in the UNESCO world heritage areas.

Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and  Palazzo Tursi, masterpieces of Genovese architectural and residential culture, they are reunited in a single coherent display tour dedicated to the antique art in Strada Nuova, UNESCO world heritage area.

PALAZZO ROSSO
Abode-museum from the 1600’s, set in an environment of notable architectural and decorative interest; it hosts the historic tapestries and the art collections of the Brignole-Sale family.  It contains works by Van Dick, Durer, Guercino, Veronese, Reni, Preti and Strozzi. In the new rooms that are enriched by very prestigious furniture, paintings are displayed along with sketches and prints on rotation (Guercino, Cambiaso, Caracci, Reni). The auditorium of the Strada Nuova museums and the Genova documentation centre for history, art and images can be enjoyed by the public. 
It is possible to go up to the lookout, positioned over the entire historic centre with the new panoramic elevator.

PALAZZO BIANCO
The picture galley, enriched with new rooms, offers a rich and articulated slice of Italian (Veronese, Filippino Lippi, Caravaggio, Procaccino, Morazzone), Flemish (Memling, David, Massys, Rubens, Van Dyck) and Genovese pictorial production from the end of the 1400’s to the 1700’s. The first mezzanine of the palace hosts DVJ Damask Velvet Jeans/ Study centre for fashion textiles, with exhibitions and events dedicated to textile art.

PALAZZO TURSI
Constructed in the Century of the Genovese, as well as hosting the Mayor’s delegation rooms, it now receives the exhibition from the gallery of Palazzo Bianco. In the monumental rooms there are renowned pieces such as the Guarneri del Gesù violin that belonged to Paganini. The final touch is a new exhibition of decorative works of art (tapestries, furniture, Ligurian ceramics, among which the important equipment from the ancient Genovese pharmacies and hospitals), as well as the collection of official coins, weights and measures from the ancient Republic of Genova.