Galata Museum of the Sea

This is the biggest maritime museum in the Mediterranean and is situated in the Galata, one of the oldest buildings of those that made up the ancient Genovese arsenal inside of which the Marine Republic’s galleys (typical boat) were constructed.
Inaugurated in 2004, the Museum (10 000m2 of displays) hosts an accurate reconstruction (full-scale) of a galley from the XVII century (the result of a three year historical research project) and the museum tour is planned around it.
Those who visit the museum take an extraordinary trip through time: from the galley to the transatlantic liner running through the history of navigation from the oar to the sail, from steamships to luxurious cruise ship, and all in the environment of the antique arsenal of the Rebiblic of Genova. A trip through time is suggested by the name: Galata was the old Genovese quarter in Byzantium, know today as Istanbul.
 
The museum, which combines tradition and technological innovation in a highly spectacular way, is organised on 4 floors. The whole complex includes seventeen large rooms, reconstructions of port and dockyard environments, multimedia communication points, and spectacular audio-visual effects; they bring together the rich display of nautical instruments, atlases, nautical maps, weapons and antique paintings: visitors can transform themselves into “visit-actors”, given that at Galata the show accompanies the public always and every day is a novelty.
The original objects that tell about the adventures of the men of the sea from the 1400’s to the 1900’s, the reconstructions of port environments, the nautical instruments and the multimedia communication points allow visitors to appreciate what it meant to “go by sea” in the different eras.


Elaboration of data and information taken from www.comune.genova.it; www.apt.genova.it; www.wikipedia.it