Magnificent Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria seems to suddenly materialize before one’s eyes as one looks out for it in the tangle of narrow alley-ways and tiny squares of the old town centre set between Via della Maddalena and Via San Luca.
Its stuccoed facades immediately identify it as a patrician building, majestic from the architectural point of view with large staircases and covered open arcades (loggias), splendid interior décor, frescoes and a gallery of paintings by prominent painters such as Luca Cambiaso, Bernardo Castello, Bernardo Strozzi, Antonello da Messina, Rubens, van Dyck, Grechetto and Tintoretto.
Originally built by the Grimaldi family, the building was first inherited by the Pallavicino family, then by the Dorias, and finally by the Spinola family.
In his book on Genoese mansions, published in Antwerp in 1622, Pieter Paul Rubens tells us extensively what the building originally looked like.
In 1958 the Spinola family donated the palace and its contents, paintings, furniture, pottery, silverware, books and engravings to the Italian State, which has gradually enlarged and enriched this collection of fine arts with works purchased over the past decades.
Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria is one of the 42 buildings listed on the so-called Rolli, the scrolls listing well-to-do families willing to host state visitors to Genoa, that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.