Villa delle Peschiere

History

The villa was built in 1560 as a summer house for the Genoese nobleman Tobia Pallavicino, a wealthy merchant in alum, in an elevated area over the city which, in the 16th century, was still outside of the city walls. While the villa was being constructed, Tobia Pallavicino also commissioned his city palace in the Strada Nuova (Italian for "New Street", now via Garibaldi), known today as Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi.

Raffaele Soprani attributed the design of the villa to Galeazzo Alessi in 1674, although he still doubted whether “some reforms and additions" should not be attributed to Giovanni Battista Castello "il Bergamasco" instead, who was building a city palace for Tobia Pallavicino in the same period.

The villa underwent some alterations and a general restoration before 1846. In the second half of the 19th century, the large park was reduced in size to make way to the opening of via Peschiera.

Charles Dickens is one of the notable guests who stayed at the villa and described in his Pictures from Italy the views over the city and the Acquasola gardens which one could enjoy from the park.

Description

Galeazzo Alessi used in Villa delle Peschiere some new approaches to connect the garden and the interior of the villa. In particular, he built two main entrances, one on each side, thus realizing an organic continuity between the garden, the central rooms and the staircase. The southern facade is sumptuously decorated, with geometrical compositions and a decorative scheme of Ionic and Corinthian lesene

The internal stuccoes and the hexagonal bathroom (a bizarre fashion of the time, documented in several Genoese villas, but preserved only in Villa delle Peschiere) were realized by Marcello Sparzo, a member of the school of Giovanni Battista Castello. The rich frescoes at the piano nobile, almost completely preserved, are attributed to Antonio Semino with some interventions by Luca Cambiaso, to whom is also attributed the mythological cycle of frescoes in the lateral rooms.

The garden, whose original condition is known today thanks to the drawings of Martin-Pierre Gauthier, has been greatly reduced in size in the 19th century when Via Peschiera was built. Part of the garden is still preserved in the area around the villa, which includes the fountain with a statue attributed to Gian Giacomo Vansoldo.