Renovation of the Palazzata della Ripa in Genoa (1865-1903): between neoRenaissance project and restoration of Middle Age.

The Ripa maris, with its “thousand feet” of porticoes, which once looked directly on to the sea, is one of the most characteristic signs of the city of Genoa, even in its essential “invisibility”. One can see it as a whole, only by walking away from it, along the docks of the old port. Built by order of the Consuls of the Republic from 1133-34, it extends right across the old port and, in the centre, touches palazzo San Giorgio, the Captain of the People’s old residence. The paper will concentrate on one of the crucial moments in the history of this part of the city. It starts with the first demolition and reconstruction, dating back to the 1830s, during which a part of the medieval Ripa was lost, and ends with the restoration works of the first years of the XXth century. We will note that, while the mid-XIXth century works involved demolishing and reconstructing the palazzos according to an eclectic style and high regular porticoes, the works carried out at the turn of the century in the part of the palazzata to the north of Palazzo San Giorgio aimed to retrace the old medieval facies. The contribution analyses the different versions of plans, which the local council was asked to approve, between the end of the 1880s and the first years of the XXth century. Our hypothesis is that there is a close link between the restoration which Alfredo D’Andrade carried out on palazzo San Giorgio between 1891-92 and 1905 (the first restoration of a civic building in Genoa) and the last project, then realized, for the Ripa.