The Palazzo San Giorgio or Palace of St. George (also known as the Palazzo delle Compere di San Giorgio) is one of the most important and well-known historic buildings in Genoa. It currently houses the headquarters of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea. The palace, included in the Molo district, is made up of two very distinct parts: an older part, a typical example of medieval civil architecture, with the façade facing the Sottoripa portico, and a Renaissance part, facing the sea, in which prospect, overlooking Via della Mercanzia, the short street that connects Piazza Caricamento and Piazza Cavour, near the ancient port, the main entrance portal opens. Initially called the sea palace because it directly overlooks the port docks, with the sea lapping its foundations, it was built to a design by Cistercian architect and monk Friar Oliverio around the middle of the 13th century as the seat of the Municipality; it then became the seat of customs and in the 15th century it passed to the Bank of Saint George, from which it took its name. Expanded in the 16th century, it was completely restored in the second half of the 19th century by Alfredo d'Andrade after a period of decay; since 1903 it has housed the offices of the Genoese port authority.
History
Edification The palace was built between 1257 and 1260 on commission of the capitano del popolo Guglielmo Boccanegra who thus intended to create his own seat for civil power, distinct from that of religious power, established near the Genoa Cathedral.
The project of the new public building, as recalled by a plaque affixed to the façade facing the city, was entrusted to Friar Oliverio, a monk from the Abbey of Sant'Andrea in Sestri Ponente, who had previously designed the extension to the sea of the Old Pier. The palace was built in what was then the main landmark of the city, the seaside portico of Sottoripa, which at that time was the economic center of the city. The new palace, located in the center of this portico, was built next to the terminal of the roof of the Soziglia stream, then recently channeled into an underground route under the current via Luccoli, piazza Soziglia, via Orefici, piazza Banchi, via al Ponte Reale.
Medieval period The newly built palace was the seat of the Municipality for only two years; in 1262, Boccanegra was deposed and forced into exile in France, where he was appointed governor of Aigues-Mortes by Louis IX, a position he held until upon his death, in 1273 (or 1274). After Boccanegra's fall, the Municipality had a temporary seat for some years, until at the end of the century it settled in the requisite Alberto Fieschi's palace in Serravalle, the building from which the current Doge's Palace developed. In the second half of the 13th century the palace also housed the prisons in which Marco Polo was held, having fallen prisoner of the Genoese during the Battle of Curzola in 1298. During the period of detention, which lasted almost a year, he dictated to his fellow prisoner Rustichello da Pisa his travel memoirs which were later published as The Travels of Marco Polo. Starting from 1290, part of the chains of Porto Pisano were placed on the external porticoes of the building. From 1340 the sea palace became the seat of magistracies for the control of port traffic and the customs and the offices of the so-called "Compere" were established there, bodies responsible for managing the money loans made by citizens to the Municipality. In 1407 all the "Compere" were brought together under a single management: thus the Bank of Saint George was born, one of the first banking institutions born in the Italy of the Municipalities. It administered the public debt and managed the revenues of the taxes, a role it would play until 1797, when the Republic of Genoa fell.
15th to 17th century
Starting from 1451, the year in which the entire building passed to the administration of Saint George, taking on its name, the palace was the subject of a series of expansions towards the east. This was an expression of the Bank of Saint George's growing power, which brought the institution to acquire important functions not only in the economic but also political field, such as the administration of Corsica and the dominions of the republic in the two Rivieras. The palace was restored in 1535, but the most important expansion was that of 1570, when a building was added on the eastern side, adjacent to the existing one, with a monumental façade facing the port, designed to be clearly visible to those who approached Genoa by sea. On this occasion the medieval part was renovated and the statues of the benefactors of the Compere di San Giorgio were placed in the rooms. The Customs offices were located on the ground floor of the new wing, on the first floor the offices and the so-called "sacristies", the vaults in which coins and precious metals were kept; the Bank's archive was located on the second floor. The facades of the new building were frescoed in 1592 by Andrea Semini, but the Protectors of the Bank, dissatisfied with the work, entrusted a new assignment to Lazzaro Tavarone, who between 1606 and 1608 frescoed the sea front with figures of notables Genoese and in the center Saint George Killing the Dragon. In the 17th century a clock tower was built in the center of the facade.
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