A Family Enclave in Medieval Genoa

George Gorse

Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 41, No. 3, Urban History in the 1980s. (Spring,
1988), pp. 20-24.

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Tue Nov 27 07:33:52 2007

George Gorse is Viola Horton Asso-
ciate Professor of Art at Pomona and
Scripps Colleges. H e is conducting
research on Renaissance villas and urban
history.
This article asks urban historians to rec-
ognize that their discipline has given
special preference to particular periods
and topics o f research. Using Genoa as
an example, the author reveals the
importance o f overcoming such preju-
dices. Medieval cities in ltaly have often
stood in the shadow of magnificent
Renaissance environments, specifically
those of Florence, Rome, and Venice.
Such a focus fails to acknowledge the
pluralistic nature of ltalian culture. Genoa,
with whole neighborhoods from the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries intact,
offers the opportunity to examine a
medieval ltalian city. In contrast to con-
temporary city-states where the central
communal and papal authority was
instrumental in molding urban form,
Genoa was shaped primarily by pow-
erful families. Individual clans con-
trolled whole neighborhoods; they care-
fully coded these zones architecturally
and iconographically. The author draws
upon archival and physical data to
explain the evolution o f one such urban
enclave, the Piazza San Matteo of the
Doria family. This neighborhood reveals
the value of considering not only the
patronage of individual urban buildings,
but also patterns of patronage through-
out an entire city.
Spring 1988 JAE 4113
A Family Enclave in
Medieval Genoa
Among the major ltalian cities which rose
to power as trading and banking centers
during the "Commercial Revolution" of
the Late Middle Ages, Genoa is one of
the least studied by modern architec-
tural historians. (Fig. 1)' Reasons for this
neglect are not hard to find. Researchers
have been limited by a culturally centric
view of ltaly during the Medieval,
Renaissance a n d Baroque periods.
Focusing upon Florence, Rome and
Venice, this view fails to see the plural-
istic nature of Italian culture as an
exchange between many centers. Cul-
tural centrism, compounded by our
idealization of "The Renaissance City"
as a unique, classically-inspired ex novo
creation of fifteenth- to sixteenth-century
humanism, overlooks the underlying
continuities of urban life and form exist-
ing from the tenth-eleventh through the
seventeenth centuries. As a result, medi-
eval urban spaces and buildings lan-
guish in shadow, literally in "darkness."
The importance of Genoa for urban his-
torians is that it has an extensive medi-
eval urban center which still remains in
the light, largely unchanged. One can
see and analyze whole neighborhoods
from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
(Figs. 3-4) A visual interpretation of these
remains serves as a first step to under-
standing the architectural character and
structure of medieval neighborhoods and
cities, and the role which private families
played in their creation, a subject which
has been neglected by previous urban
historians in favor of public-communal
and ecclesiastical patronage.
In addition to the well-preserved physi-
cal remains, Genoa boasts ample archi-
val material.2 To date little has been done
with these valuable source materials. For
example, the transactions of the Padres
Comunis from the fifteenth through the
seventeenth centuries remain virtually
unexamined. These documents chroni-
cle the action of the three magistrates
who regulated urban planning in Genoa,
from the clearing of piazzas and the
planning of streets, to the regulation of
building heights and overhangs. Simi-
larly, preserved tax records from the
same period provide information on
property ownership and distribution of
wealth.
Unfortunately, neither Genoa's archival
sources nor the city's physical form has
been examined in depth. Even very basic
tasks have not been completed. For
instance, there is no reliable history of
medieval architecture in the city which
outlines a basic chronology of building
types, styles, and function^.^ Modern
urban historians are just now clarifying
the broad periodization of Genoa's
development in terms of its plan.
In the medieval period, Genoa had a
commercial empire extending from the
Black Sea and Constantinople to the Holy
Land, Egypt, North Africa and Iberia.
Enriched by the Crusades, the city grew
beyond its fortified, late antique walls
into an inhabited Burgus, a suburban
marketplace and residential q ~ a r t e r . ~
Approaching 80-100,000 in population
by the early fourteenth century, the city
was enclosed by a third ring of city walls
just prior to the economic-demographic
crises during the 1330s-40s. (Fig.2)5The
founding of the Genoese republic by
Andrea Doria in 1528 created the nec-
essary conditions for the city's recovery
and renewed expansion during the sec-
ond half of the sixteenth and early sev-
enteenth centuries.
Genoa appears unique among ltalian
medieval and Renaissance cities for the
supremacy of its private families and
family groups over the centralized com-
munal government. The power of the
urbanized feudal noble families were
restricted neither by influential guilds as
in Florence, nor by a strong communal
state as in Venice. The importance of
families and of private patronage in
Genoa was particularly evident in the
medieval center. There, the remains of
numerous distinct family neighborhoods
testify to local focal points of urban life.
During the eleventh and twelfth centu-
ries, with the revival of European town
life and trade in the Mediterranean,
powerful noblefamiliessuch asthe Doria,
Spinola, Pallavicino, Grimaldi, Fieschi,
Embriachi and others with landholdings
in the countryside moved into Genoa.
They succeeded in imposing on the city
a social order based upon private family
faction-local family groups which
wielded military, political and economic
power.6

In the city, Genoa's noble families cre-

ated strongholds reminiscent of their
fortified, towered houses in the country-
side.' By the fourteenth century, Genoa
had sixty-four legally recognized family
quarters, called alberghi, recorded in
the town's tax registers. Each was con-
trolled by a maior noble family, which
gave its name to the albergo, around
which other less powerful families gath-
ered in a family clan structure. Inter-
marriage and political alliances between
families preserved the cohesiveness of
these social groups. In physical terms,
the Genoese albergo was a discreet ter-
ritorial unit where a particular family and 1 The Piazza San Maneo, thirteenth cenfwy, looking towards
the church. Cornune di Genova, Direzione Belle Arti.
its allies lived; but it was also an impor-
tant religious, judicial, political, social
and economic focus of activity as
Members of the albergo elected repre-
sentatives to the communal councils,
adjudicated local disputes between clan
members, baptized and buried fellow
consorti, and participated in business
ventures as a group. Family members
who prayed together, stayed together;
and they did everything else together as
well.

The Piazza San Matteo, the urban seat

of the Doria (Auria) family, is the best
preserved of the Genoese medieval
family alberghi? (Figs. 1,3-5) The Piazza
San Matteo was a family enclave, an
architectural, urban and social unit,
consisting of a parish church, palaces,
piazza, and streets controlled by the
Doria family. Well-preserved and well-
documented, the Piazza San Matteo
serves as a model for the study of family 2 Cristoforo de Grassi,Uhan View of Genw (Genova-
enclaves in medieval European cities. Pegli, Civico Museum Novale), painted in 1597 showing
the city c. 1481. Comune di Genova, Direzione Belle Arti.

Spring 1988 JAE 4113

Chiesa di San Matteo
Piazza San Matteo, 18 - Tel. 205.939
1 Chiostro
2 Palazzo Branca Doria
3 Palazzo Dornenicaccio Doria
4 Palazzo Quartara
5 Palazzo Larnba Doria
6 Palazzo donato ad Andrea Doria
7 Palazzo Gnecco
3 Plan of Piazza Son Maneo, thirteenth ceniuty. From G.
Algeri, Chiesa di San Matko, Guido di Genow, N. 14,
SAGEP EDITRICE.
In 1125, Martino Doria laid out the Piazza
San Matteo in Genoa's expanding Bur-
gus. Soon thereafter, the area was
enclosed by the city walls of 1155-1161.
The Piaua San Matteo controlled access
into Genoa from two city gates on the
east, the Porta Aurea and a second Porta
just to the south, which led into the Civ-
itas and Burgus areas. Located just to
the north of the Cathedral and cloister
of San Lorenzo, the focus of religious
life in Genoa, and the archbishop's pal-
ace, an administrative center, the Piazza
San Matteo stood close to the heart of
civic affairs, yet outside the most con-
gested population center in the Civitas.
Even today, the visitor to the Piazza San
Matteo (Figs. 1 & 3) immediately senses
the insularity of the medieval family
enclave, with the arrangement of build-
ings around a small enclosed space.
Spring 1988 JAE 4113
4 Palazzo Larnba Doria, Piaua Son Malteo, south side,
c. 1270-1 295. Photo: authw.
Architecture and piazza work together
to create an open, light-filled, tranquil
urban place--a still "eye" in the center
of the medieval urban hurricane--which
contrasts with the congested, busy, dark,
narrow streets of the neighborhood all
around. The piazza itself is only 25 meters
long x 23 meterswide includingthe street
which runs down the right hand side of
the church. Originally it was a continu-
ously sloped, paved area; the steps
belong to the twentieth century. Within
the circulation system of medieval Genoa
one must imagine that, beyond the
Cathedral and communal palace, the
common harborfront, market squares
and streets, pedestrian and vehicular
traffic was sharply curtailed and con-
trolled bvfamilvenclaveslikethis.which
created & celluiar pattern throughout the
city. Each albergo
- was a miniatureworld
unto itself.
At the center of this world was the family
church, la chiesa di gentilizia. Following
Martino Doria's first church of 1125, San
Matteo was rebuilt and the piazza
enlarged to its present dimensions after
1278 during the major period of urban
expansion in the Burgus. Dedicated to
the patron saint of the Doria family, the
church stands at the head of the family
piazza, and the piazza functions as an
atrium to the church. Both are insepa-
rable as an urban unit. Since the thir-
teenth century, San Matteo has been the
center of the Doria family's religious life.
Many of the most important historical
events in Genoa took place before this
church, includingsolemn processionsand
the presentation of gifts by the commune
to the family church in celebration of
Doria naval victories. Such pageantry
affirmed the military, political, and eco-
nomic power of the Dorias. Prominent

5 Schematic Plan of the Neighborhood of San Maneo, indi-
cating fam~liesand church upper right. From J. Heers,
Portles o n d Political Life In the Medleval West, North-
Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, Fig. 2.
family members were buried in the crypt
ofthechurch beneath the high altar,which
served as the "sacred center" of the
family's religious activities. Even today
the front pew of San Matteo is embla-
zoned with the family's coat-of-arms, the
crowned double-headed eagle, and a
gold-plated inscription reads: "Riser-
vato per la Famiglia Doria."
The facade of San Matteo is decorated
in a Lombard Gothic style, similar in
monumental effect a n d feeling to
Romanesque churches l i k e Sant'
Ambrogio in Milan, the most important
episcopal seat in northwestern Italy. The
Gothic window and portal profiles,
moldings, and large rose window artic-
ulate the facade of San Matteo and give
the piazza space a major defining fea-
ture. Doria eagles decorate the facade
in small medallions to either side of the
I Palace of
1 p;'Iy 1
the Imperrall
entrance portal, flanking the thirteenth-
century mosaic of San Matteo. Inscrip-
tions carved into the white bands of mar-
ble across the church facade commem-
orate major military victories by Doria
admirals of the Genoese fleet in conflicts
against their arch enemies, the Pisans
and Venetians.l0A late classical Roman
sarcophagus containing the remains of
Lamba Doria mounted beneath the right
window of the church celebrates this
naval commander's successes. The
facade of San Matteo, with its tripartite
arrangement, presents a triumphal image
of its patrons as defenders of church,
commune and albergo.
The most unifying element of the Piazza
San Matteo, besides its symmetrical plan
and homogeneous building style, is the
consistent use of black and white marble
as building materials. The zebra pat-
terns of church and palaces add a visual
animation to the entire space. In Genoa,
black and white marble was reserved
by law to the Cathedral and to important
churches like San Matteo, as well as to
the urban palaces of four Genoese noble
families-the Doria, Spinola, Grimaldi,
and Fieschi-who had the privilege of
displaying these expensive and osten-
tatious materials." What better way of
highlighting, in a manner similar to the
modern billboard or classical store-
front, the power of family within the
medieval albergo than by the color of
these facades. This encoding served as
a visual guide through the medieval city
with its maze of family enclaves and
clearly defined the social hierarchy within
each albergo.
The Genoese use of black-and-white
marble on selected private houses con-
trasts dramatically with medieval Flor-
ence, where communal law and conven-
tion allowed only maior churches to be
built in bianco e nero.12 Marble display
on patrician palaces seems more like
Venice, Genoa's principal competitor for
Mediterranean trade. However, the
Genoese arrangement of palaces on a
closed family space could not be more
different from the arrangement of Vene-
tian palaces along the Grand Canal.13
The Genoese nobility used marble on
their churches and palaces to express
their private family power, not their
association with the communal state.
San Matteo's Lombard Gothic style was
continued around the piazza by a series
of open porticoes (now closed in) on the
ground floor of the Doria family pal-
aces. The formal character of the piazza
focused the life of the surrounding
neighborhood. To the north of the church,
a Benedictine monastery (Fig. 5) served
as the residence of a communityof monks
who attended to the spiritual needs of
the Doria family and their clan.14Water
for the church and neighborhood was
provided by a well in the center of the
cloister garden. Important members of
the Doria family built palaces around
the perimeter of the piazza, controlling
Sprlng 1968 JAE 41i3