Palazzo Ducale Genova

Exhibition
Invention of the Rolli Palaces

Exhibition Venue
Palazzo Tursi, Via Garibaldi 9
May 29th - September 5th, 2004
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 9am - 7pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am - 7pm
Closed on Monday
EMail: biglietteria[AT]palazzoducale[DOT]genova[DOT]it
Admission, Exhibition and Musei di Strada Nuova
full € 9.00
concessions € 7.00
schoools € 2,00
Reduction for those holding the ticket for the exhibition "L'Età di Rubens" The exhibition is included in GeNova04 Card

Information Ph. +39-010-2758098 / +39-010-5574004

www.palazzoducale.genova.it/rolli

This exhibition marks an auspicious opening to Musei di Strada Nuova (The Strada Nuova Museums) and also offers an invitation to visitors to discover another Genoa.
Views, contemporary objects, maquettes and sketches, some forty drawings from the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, published by Rubens in Antwerp in 1622, as well as a brief video take the visitor on a journey through the famous palazzi dei rolli, buildings that bear testimony to an extraordinary period in the history of Genoa and which are custodians of the city’s special – indeed, in European terms, unique – identity: a city where private wealth was used as an effective instrument of public representation.
The exhibition takes up nine rooms on the piano nobile of Palazzo Tursi and gives the visitor a clear idea of the original and coherent interlocking pattern of houses and streets which over ten centuries has shaped the identity of the city of Genoa.
It has been with great interest that the inhabitants of Genoa have recently rediscovered the riches and memorial value of the exceptional monumental system of Strada Nuova and palazzi dei rolli.
Accordingly, an application has been submitted for the city to be placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
With the re-construction of its fourteenthcentury city walls (1536-1553) Genoa began to renew its urban landscape and create a system of outstanding residences, distributed along a small number of axes perpendicular to the so-called Ripa (the name given to the shore or waterfront). Despite numerous transformations this system is still intimately connected to the old town and continues to reflect the spirit of a century whose evocative power remains undiminished.
In 1576 the Senate decreed the adoption of rolli, lists of private residences that could be called upon to provide hospitality on the occasion of state visits. Careful topographical reconstruction has made it possible to indicate the position of the 150 houses that could be requisitioned. These were listed in five 'rolls', or registers, referred to as "Rolli degli alloggiamenti pubblici" ("Registers of public accommodations"; dated 1576, 1588, 1599, 1614 and 1664), which have been preserved in Genoa's State Archives.
The residences were divided into three categories, according to size, beauty and importance: one for cardinals, princes and viceroys; another for feudatories and governors; and the third for ambassadors.
For each category there was a so-called bussolo – a list containing the names of the property-owners who were to be entrusted with the honour and financial burden of official visits and who were determined each time by the drawing of lots.
Only three of the palaces were considered worthy of furnishing accommodations or the "Pope, Emperor and Cardinal legates or other Princes": the dwellings of Gio. Batta Doria in Salita Santa Caterina, and those of Nicolò Grimaldi and Franco Lercari in Strada Nuova (Via Garibaldi).