Old Gardens of Italy 43 



PALAZZO DORIA, GENOA. 



BUILT by Fra Giovanni Montorsoli, of Florence, in 

 1529, for Admiral Andrea Doria. Situated close 

 to the chief railway station. The palace is now in 

 part public offices and grounds, and may freely be 

 entered at any time. 



The plan made by M. Gautier in 1832 (see The 

 Art of Garden Design in Italy , by H. Inigo Triggs, 

 Plate 17) shows that even then much of the garden 

 remained. In 1 904 the writer carefully went over 

 the whole of the ground above the palace to the 

 boundary behind the colossal statue of Jupiter, 

 beneath which is buried a dog that the Doria family 

 took care of for the King of Spain. Gigantic dis- 

 used cisterns, built in huge squares, honeycombed 

 the hill-side and formed the only reminder of the 

 prodigious garden scheme that once existed. A 

 large hotel now occupies this site. 



The slip of ground between the palace and the 

 sea is all that now exists of a garden visited by 

 Evelyn in 1644 and charmingly described by him. 

 " It reaches," he wrote, " from the sea to the sum- 

 mit of the mountains." Little imagination is 

 needed to picture its magnificence at a period when 

 the lower terrace, with its white marble balustrade, 

 bordered the water, long before the present un- 

 sightly line of docks interposed. This was the spot 

 where the admiral held his famous banquet, when 

 three times new plate was brought and that which 

 had been used was thrown into the sea. 



