Palazzo Agostino Spinola: A Historic Rolli Palace in Genoa
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Genoese
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page12 sections
History
Palazzo Agostino Spinola, also known as Doria De Ferrari, is a historic palace in Genoa, Italy, whose foundation is placed in the fourteenth century. Its oldest identified architectural unit is a fifteenth-century palace, later rebuilt and enlarged through several phases. The complex became part of the Rolli, the Republic of Genoa’s official system of aristocratic residences assigned to accommodate visiting dignitaries and state representatives. Its three building units entered the lists under different listings, reflecting the separate histories of the properties before their eventual consolidation.
From medieval origins to the Doria family
The oldest part, known as body I, was reconstructed during the sixteenth century. In 1617, Ambrogio Doria senior purchased the building. A direct descendant of Lamba Doria, Ambrogio was elected doge, the head of the Republic of Genoa, in 1621 and died during that same year. He commissioned Lazzaro Tavarone to decorate rooms on the first floor with scenes from Roman history. His son Paolo later ordered another decorative cycle from Giovanni Battista Carlone, featuring the Finding of Moses and allegorical subjects.
The complex also preserves the history of other Doria properties. One of its Rolli listings belonged to Ettore Doria in 1588, when he was a wealthy banker of the Crown. Body II began as the sixteenth-century house and garden of Domenico Doria. Between 1590 and 1618, Sebastiano Ponzello added a wing and a staircase linking it with the garden of Gio. Batta Doria. Body III was constructed after 1586 for Agostino Spinola, Gio. Batta Doria’s brother-in-law, in connection with the opening of the road between Piazza San Domenico and Piazza San Matteo.
Expansion and changing ownership
Palazzo Agostino Spinola acquired its present extent under Ambrogio Doria junior. Between 1775 and 1777, he purchased two neighboring buildings from Antonio Doria and Cristoforo Spinola and joined them to his own palace. This work closed the alley between Vico Falamonica and Salita di San Matteo and created a new entrance from Piazza San Domenico. The consolidation transformed three separate properties into a single architectural complex.
In 1738, Lorenzo De Ferrari redecorated the piano nobile, the principal and ceremonially important residential floor of an aristocratic palace. At the end of the eighteenth century, Antonio Giolfi was commissioned to produce another decorative cycle. During the early nineteenth century, the architect Carlo Barabino remodeled the Piazza San Domenico elevation in the neoclassical style, based on ancient Greek and Roman forms, and reorganized parts of the interior. Some of the rooms created during this period were later decorated by Michele Canzio.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century phases
From 1780, the palace belonged to Cesare Lamba Doria. His daughter Livia sold it in 1826 to Andrea De Ferrari, the son of Doge Raffaele Agostino De Ferrari. Ownership then passed to Raffaele De Ferrari, husband of Maria Brignole Sale and future Duke of Galliera. In 1888, the property passed to their son Filippo and to the De Ferrari-Brignole Sale charitable institution.
The palace was sold to the Banco di Roma in 1920. In 1979, the bank restored the facade and parts of the interiors and connected them below street level with the adjacent Palazzo Giulio Pallavicini. A plaque records another episode in the building’s history: the palace served as the headquarters of the French general Masséna from 10 February to 4 June 1800, during the British fleet’s blockade of Genoa. The palace forms part of the Palazzi dei Rolli, although it is not included in the UNESCO World Heritage listing associated with the Rolli palaces.
Remains
Palazzo Agostino Spinola occupies Piazza De Ferrari 3 and extends toward Salita di San Matteo. Its surviving form is a complex of three principal units, bodies I, II, and III, unified by later construction. The building is used for residences and offices, while restored interiors connect below street level with those of Palazzo Giulio Pallavicini. The principal entrance created from Piazza San Domenico leads into an atrium and a columned vestibule staircase, forming a circulation axis set at right angles to the original core.
Body I and the decorated piano nobile
The oldest palace unit
Body I is the oldest part of the complex. It originated as a fifteenth-century palace and was reconstructed in the sixteenth century. Its first-floor rooms retain the subjects of two major decorative campaigns. Lazzaro Tavarone’s cycle presents episodes from Roman history, while Giovanni Battista Carlone’s later work depicts the Finding of Moses and allegories.
The eighteenth-century salons
Lorenzo De Ferrari’s 1738 redecoration of the piano nobile created three salons. One was devoted to The Chariot of the Sun, another to Night, and the Salon of the Metamorphoses was covered with modeled stucco, a workable plaster used for architectural decoration. Its wall scheme frames six oval panels showing stories of Diana, while the ceiling contains allegories of the Elements.
The two later building units
Body II
Body II began as Domenico Doria’s sixteenth-century house with a garden. Between 1590 and 1618, Sebastiano Ponzello extended it with a new wing and built a staircase connecting it to the garden of Gio. Batta Doria. These additions formed part of the unit’s development before the three palaces were joined into one complex.
Body III
Body III was built after 1586 for Agostino Spinola, who was related to Gio. Batta Doria by marriage. Its construction accompanied the opening of the road between Piazza San Domenico and Piazza San Matteo. The later union of the three buildings closed the former alley between Vico Falamonica and Salita di San Matteo.
Unified circulation and later interiors
The entrance from Piazza San Domenico leads first to an atrium and then to a columned vestibule staircase. This arrangement establishes a new route toward the piano nobile, oriented across the earlier core of the palace. Barabino’s nineteenth-century work gave the Piazza San Domenico facade its neoclassical appearance and enlarged the stairway route. The expanded interior filled the former space between the separate buildings, while some later rooms received decoration by Michele Canzio.
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