Genoa's 20th-Century Architecture on Display at Palazzo Ducale

The Wolfsoniana curators have installed an exhibition on early 20th-century Genoese architecture in the Cappella Dogale, a space that blends sacred and secular history. The show presents a selection of projects for still-existing buildings that symbolize the secular power of industrialized Genoa. An introductory panel outlines the city's urban development after the Congress of Vienna (1814), highlighting contrasts between Levante and Ponente. With the rise of Ansaldo, Ponente became a massive industrial hub within two decades, while Levante saw the covering of the Bisagno stream completed by 1930. During the Fascist era, the 1932 regulatory plan involved architect Marcello Piacentini, who redesigned Piazza della Vittoria and built the monumental palace now housing INPS. Also on display are projects for Piazza by Alfredo Fineschi and Beniamino Bellati, leisure venues like the Yacht Club by Giuseppe Crosa di Vergagni, and economic buildings such as the interiors of the Palazzo della Borsa by Adolfo Coppedè. The exhibition underscores Genoa's significant architectural and urban history, suggesting potential for a larger show addressing themes like human-nature coexistence, city transformation, and environmental sustainability, which could draw on materials from other city archives dating back to the Middle Ages.