Historic center of Genoa

The historic center of Genoa is the core of the old town organized in the maze of alleys (caruggi) of medieval origin that runs – from east to west – from the hill of Carignano (Genoa) to the Genova Piazza Principe railway station, close to what was once the Palazzo del Principe, residence of Admiral Andrea Doria. Urbanistically, the area is part of Municipio I Centro-Est. However, the current municipal area was created by the merger, which took place on several occasions starting in the second half of the 19th century, of historic Genoa with adjacent municipalities and towns (now neighborhoods), some of which have more or less ancient historic centers of their own and have been urbanistically transformed over the years. The major urban planning operations carried out from the first half of the 19th century to beyond the middle of the 20th century (which are difficult to replicate today, given the increased interest in the protection of historic neighborhoods by the public administration), combined with the damage that occurred during World War II (many of the old buildings were destroyed during the Allied bombing raids), partly disrupted the original fabric of the historic center. Slightly less than a quarter of the buildings (23.5 percent) date from the postwar period or later.