Genova Voltri is the last district of the city towards the west. Villa Brignole Sale Duchessa di Galliera can be reached on foot from the seaside following via al Santuario delle Grazie (check out the route).
The neoclassical villa, with its 32 hectares of park, was built in 1675 and still today retains the charm of that distant era, between art and sumptuous magnificence. The last owner, the Duchess Galliera, worked to bring it back to its maximum splendour, around 1876, under the direction of the architect Luigi Rovelli.
The english park of Villa Duchessa di Galliera is a jewel, and it was developed according to three themes: the talian garden, the romantic and the clearing. Two monumental staircases lead to the villa, whose facade opens onto a vast terrace. The primitive body corresponds now to the central one, on which the noble shield of the ancient owners still stands out. The side wings of the building were added later. The entrance to the actual building, contrary to the usual canons, is not placed centrally but under a portico in the eastern wing and gives access to the vast internal rooms, once famous for the precious frescoes and the rich rococo decorations (almost all lost), evidence of which remains on the ground floor in the Sala delle Conchiglie, decorated by Giuseppe Canepa from Voltri, and, on the first floor, in the small theatre, commissioned by Anna Pieri, wife of Anton Giulio III Brignole Sale, in 1786.
Vico Nicolò da Corte 2, Genova
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