A symbol of the city of Genoa, The Lighthouse, at 77 metres high, is the tallest lighthouse in the Mediterranean.

487.-Genova-La-Lanterna.jpg

I spent most of my childhood and youth in Genoa, the capital of Liguria.

Unlike other Latin American immigrants of European descent, my parents settled on the Ligurian coast and stayed there for more than two decades.

That is why this land of historic sailors, of unparalleled natural beauty, has remained so imprinted in my memory.

Said the great author Alexandre Dumas:

‘Lying at the bottom of its gulf with the careless majesty of a queen ... Genoa comes, as it were, to meet the traveller’ (A. Dumas, 1841).

image.png

It is a pity that travellers pass through it most of the time in haste, preferring other places in Liguria, such as Cinque Terre or Portofino, thus missing the opportunity to discover a city rich in history, hidden treasures and suggestive corners.

The history of Genoa is told above all along Via Garibaldi ei Rolli, home to marvellous residences little known to Italians but rich in extraordinary works of art.

The charm of this city wedged between the mountains and the sea, fragmented between past and present, crossroads of different peoples and cultures (it is not by chance that the medieval name of Genoa is Janua, or ‘gate’ in Latin), has attracted the attention of writers, poets and songwriters, who in their verses have spoken of its beauty, its contrasts, its hidden soul.

First of all Fabrizio de André, who is celebrated today with a small but wonderful museum in Via del Campo 29. Although Genoa is known above all for its Aquarium, the ancient maritime republic encloses within its walls wonderful testimonies of its glorious past, but also bold and modern works that have made it a sort of capital of modern Italian architecture.

Strolling through the city, you can admire noble palaces and ancient churches, lose yourself in the labyrinth of characteristic alleys (carroggi) in which the old city centre is organised, visit interesting museums, let yourself be surprised by the symbols of the city, the new Genoa, which looks to the future but is a magnificent guardian of an ever-present past.

image.png

We begin this virtual tour by the symbol of Genoa, La Lanterna (the lighthouse), emblem of a city that developed on the basis of its port (and still continues to do so today, adding to the cargo port a tourist port where cruise ships from all over the world arrive, right in the centre of the city).

The Lighthouse of Genoa.

image.png

Proof of the maritime vocation of this city is its lighthouse, commonly called ‘the Lantern’, which has always been the symbol of Genoa. Standing 77 metres high, the historic tower rises on the remains of a 40-metre hill, making it approximately 177 metres above sea level.

Created to signal ships entering the port but also to control their movement within the port, the tower was built in the 14th century on the site of a lighthouse that had existed since 1128 and operated with a wood-burning system (bonfires).

In 1326 the first olive oil lantern was installed and in 1340 the municipal coat of arms was painted on the lower part of the tower.

Its current appearance is the result of the reconstruction carried out in the 16th century and despite the interventions following the events of the war and the lightning strikes, the lantern appears as it did then: a tower with two slender superimposed volumes with a gallery at the top of each of them (you can reach the first terrace), an interior staircase with 172 steps, a lantern inside which the lighting elements are located.

Attached to the tower is the Lantern Museum, a multimedia museum dedicated to the city and the provincial territory, which can be reached by an 800-metre walk from the Ferry Terminal along the old city walls to the lighthouse.

image.png

The Lanterna is located at the eastern end of the district of Sampierdarena, on an isolated rock that is today entirely inserted in the port context, the extreme tip of what was once the promontory of San Benigno that divided the ancient municipality of Sampierdarena from that of Genoa.

The site where it was built was called a promontory because, before the hand of man redesigned the contours of the Genoese bay, it was surrounded on three sides by the sea. To the west, the hill bordered the ancient port of Genoa, what is now the old harbour. Over time the hill took the name Capo di Faro or San Benigno, after the name of the convent of the same name that stood on it. Today, in fact, the hill no longer exists, having been razed in the second half of the 1920s to create new spaces for the town, the port itself and its production facilities, and the only thing that remains is precisely the small rocky branch from where the lighthouse stands.

At the same time, between 1920 and 1930, work was carried out to enlarge the port of Genoa, with the creation of the new Sampierdarena quays, obtained by means of a major filling in of the sea. After the operation, the Lanterna rock no longer lies directly on the sea, but a short distance from it, near the quay of Ponte San Giorgio.

The Lantern Gate

Since the Lanterna stood on the main communication route between Genoa and the west, until the San Benigno hill was excavated in the early 20th century, when the so-called seventeenth-century Mura Nuove (New Walls) were built, a gate was built inside them exactly at the foot of the Lanterna.

Thus, as historian Federico Donaver recalls, the old gate, kept in place until its demolition in 1877, was flanked by a new one built between 1828 and 1831, called Porta Nuova, Porta della Lanterna or Porta del Chiodo after its designer, General Agostino Chiodo. In fact, as Donaver himself wrote, the same gate and the adjacent streets took ‘the name of the Lanterna or Lighthouse for sailors that rises 127 m above sea level, whose construction dates back to 1549’. The double-arched gate was carved into the rock face and originally had two drawbridges supported by chains running on bronze wheels, soon replaced, due to changing practical needs, by a fixed gangway. The neoclassical façade is built of promontory stone (taken from the same hill behind the Lanterna) and white Carrara marble, a combination that counts illustrious precedents in the city's architecture. Remarkable is the sculptural detailing, consisting of metopes, jellyfish heads placed in the keystone and the coat of arms group.

The gate building was demolished in 1935. As a result of controversy, in order to preserve the memory of the gate, the façade alone was dismantled and rebuilt in its current position, leaning against the Lanterna wall, about fifty metres to the south and rotated 90° from its original position, losing its original function as a gate.

image.png

source

I hope you enjoyed this book. If you have any questions, or want to supplement this post, please write in the comments area. You can also visit Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Feedly where you'll find further information in this blog. SHARE THIS!

Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post

0 commenti:

Post a Comment

Mi Ping en TotalPing.com follow us in feedly
  • Italy Photo Gallery: Top 10 most popular articles in December 2013.
    31.01.2014 - 0 Comments
    1.- How does the "Venice system"? Venice is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is…
  • Italy Photo Gallery: Top 10 most popular articles in June 2014.
    05.07.2014 - 0 Comments
    1.- Unesco Italy sites proposed: Pelagos The Cetacean Sanctuary. The Sanctuary includes marine areas within both inland waters and territorial waters (twelve mile zone) of France, Italy and the Principality of Monaco. It also includes the neighbouring high seas. The Italian regions involved are: Liguria,…
  • Italy Photo Gallery: Top 10 most popular articles in Gennaio 2016.
    05.02.2016 - 0 Comments
    1.- Italian Christmas Recipes: Spaghetti with chilli prawns, salami & gremolata breadcrumbs. Ingredients. 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2 thumb-sized red chillies, sliced and most seeds removed 3 garlic clove, chopped 1 tsp fennel seeds Fennel seeds 10 slices fennel salami Salami, chopped 140g cherry…
  • Hiking in Liguria: Top Pian delle Saline and Ballaur.
    31.03.2013 - 0 Comments
    From Carnino Less (1387) take the trail that climbs winding through the forest. After having appeared out of a dirt road, you will reach Roofs of Maidens (1537) at the foot of the ramparts of the Rocks of Manco. From here the trail climbs the orographic left side of the valley and into the narrow gorge of…
  • Venice, the masked carnival.
    24.01.2012 - 0 Comments
    Venice: the most beautiful city in the world, the place to be seen, photographed, but specially, to be admired. Where the traditional costumes - Harlequin, Briguella and Pantalone - have now been substituted by an ever ingreasing, phantasmagorical series of disguises that have fast become…
  • Beautiful views of the Ligurian Sea, to the south, and the hills of the Maritime Alps and the Ligurian Apennines, north (Part 5).
    29.06.2013 - 0 Comments
    Dal Monte Frontè: Saccarello in the foreground, the background and the Bego Gelas View of the Riviera di Ponente going up to Monte Beigua from Pratorotondo The Maritime Alps and the Monviso from the top dell'Ermetta The Maritime Alps and the Monviso from the top dell'Ermetta The crib of lights…
  • The Historic Centre of Genoa is the largest in Europe and has been declared a World Heritage Site.
    31.12.2024 - 0 Comments
    The historic centre of Genoa is the core of the Old Town, a place full of history and charm that after years of neglect and decay has finally been restored and returned to the city.. To discover the charm of ancient Genoa you have to walk and enter the "caruggi", the picturesque alleys of…
  • Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower.
    10.11.2017 - 0 Comments
    Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Magna Graecia, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the European integration. During its…
  • The Winners Of Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 In Italy.
    11.12.2017 - 0 Comments
  • RECIPES FOR HALLOWEEN THE SCARIEST NIGHT OF THE WHOLE YEAR: GRILLED PUMPKIN.
    30.10.2019 - 0 Comments
    A beautiful pumpkin grilled for the scariest night of the whole year.Is the scariest night of the whole year approaching and do you want to scare everyone? Okay, but not in the kitchen!Discover with us all the right secrets, tips and ingredients for a truly Halloween menu .Watch our selection of quick…