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GENOA. 



GENOA. 



1138 



building. There are several old and picturesque towers in the town, 

 the largest of which is now used as the office of the podesta. The 

 town has a Societal Ecouomica, for the encouragement of agriculture, 

 literature, and the arts. It has a lace and twine factory, and is noted 

 for the manufacture of light willow chairs. Borzonasca, a large 

 village with about 5000 inhabitants, lies inland among the Apennines, 

 and is of some importance for its cloth manufactures. Lavagna, 

 famous for its slate quarries, has about 6000 inhabitants. It contains 

 a fine church and a singular-looking palace. Sapallo, a flourishing 

 town with 10,000 inhabitants, extends along the shores at the head of 

 the Bay of Rapallo, about 6 miles W. from Chiavari. It is well built; 

 the houses stand chiefly on arcades ; there are many pretty churches 

 with peculiarly graceful campanile towers, and on the sea-shore there 

 is a fine martello tower. The chief manufactures are lace and oil. 

 Synta-Margherita, a pretty village on the shore, near the promontory 

 of Porto Fino, has, including the district about it, 6000 inhabitants. 

 Seitri-di-Levante, E. of Chiavari, stands on a peninsula connected with 

 the Riviera by a long isthmus, and has 4000 inhabitants, who are 

 engaged in the coasting trade and in the marble quarries of the neigh- 

 bourhood. ThS surrounding scenery is very picturesque. San- 

 Stefano-d' Aveto, in the interior, stands on a high hill, and has 6000 

 inhabitants. Varese, a small town of 2000 inhabitants, lies east of 

 Chiavari^on the Vara. 



The Province of Gemma, lies west of that of Chiavari, and contains, 

 besides the city of GENOA, the following towns on the east coast : 

 /> , a pretty place with 5000 inhabitants, has some export trade, 

 an. 'uilds vessels of small size. Nemi, a gay-looking town, with 

 painted houses, situated also E. of Genoa, among luxuriant gardens 

 close to the shore : population, 4000. It has a small port, silk and 

 woollen manufactories, and a good fishing trade. The following 

 towns are on the shore to the west of Genoa : Sestri-di-Panente, a 

 flourishing place with about 4500 inhabitants. Pegli, population 3000. 

 Voltri, a prosperous town with several fine churches, paper manu- 

 factories, and 3500 inhabitants. 



The Province of Levante lies between that of Chiavari and the 

 eastern boundary of the division. It is watered by the Magra and 

 its feeder the Vara. The eastern part of the province forms part of 

 the territory of Lunigiana, which was named from the ancient town 

 of Luna, now in ruins, on the left bank of the Magra. The river 

 Magra is interesting as having been the boundary between Etruria 

 and the territory of the ancient Ligures. The capital of the province 

 is Spezzia, which stands at the head of the fine Bay of Spezzia in a 

 most beautiful country, and has about 10,000 inhabitants. It is 

 neatly built; the most remarkable structures are the old Genoese 

 citadel, and the ancient castle of the Visconti. In the bay, close to 

 the town, the remarkable appearance called 'polla* may be seen, which 

 is a hemispherical swell of the sea, caused by the gush of a submarine 

 spring of great abundance and power. The diameter of the polla at 

 this place is 25 feet. Porto- Vencre is a small but interesting town of 

 over 2000 inhabitants, opposite the Isle of Palmaria. It contains two 

 fine churches, one of which occupies the site of a celebrated temple 

 of Venus. On the opposite side of the Gulf of Spezzia is Lerici, 

 which is a station for coasting vessels between Genoa and Leghorn, 

 and has 4000 inhabitants. Levanto, a town of 4000 inhabitants, 

 surrounded by overhanging hills, stands in the western part of the 

 province. Sarzana, on the left bank of the Magra, in the Lunigiana, 

 is a pretty town with 8500 inhabitants. It is the seat of a bishop, 

 and has a fine cathedral, which is a good specimen of the Italo-Gothic. 

 The castle and the old fortifications, which are remarkable for their 

 massiveness, add much to the picturesque appearance of the city. 



The Province of Novi lies on the northern side of the Ligurian 

 Apennines. It is drained by the Scrivia, and by the Lemmo and 

 other mountain torrents which swell the Orba, a feeder of the Bormida. 

 The province is not productive except in its northern part, which 

 opens into the plain of the Po, and is planted with vines, mulberries, 

 and other fruit-trees. The mountains supply fine pasture, or are 

 covered with chestnut woods. Novi, the capital, a cheerful well-built 

 town, stands in a plain at the foot of the Apennines, on the road from 

 Genoa to Turin, and has a considerable transit trade and 11,000 inha- 

 bitants. It has several fine churches and palaces, and a college. 

 Voltagyio, at the foot of the mountain group called La Bocchetta, has 

 a population of 2200. Serravalle, on the left bank of the Scrivia, is 

 a bustling little town -with 3000 inhabitants. Oaiii, important from 

 its position in a defile in the mountain, and commanded by a strong 

 castle, stands on the old road from Genoa to Turin, and has 2000 

 inhabitants. Pozzuolo and Arquata are towns of about 3000 inha- 

 bitants each. Above the latter is a fine ruined castle. 



GE'NOA, GE'NOVA, a city of Italy, belonging to the kingdom of 

 Sardinia, is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean, at the foot of 

 the Ligurian Apennines, in a recess of the Gulf of Genoa, in 44 24' 

 N. lat., 8 52' E. long., 75 miles S.E. from Turin. The population in 

 1848 was 100,382. 



The city of Genoa stands partly on the declivity of several hills 

 rising in the form of a semicircle round the spacious harbour, and 

 partly on a narrow strip of ground between them and the sea. It is 

 inclosed on the land-side by a double line of fortifications, the external 

 one being above 7 miles in length. These fortifications have been 

 greatly improved and strengthened within the last few years : the 



OEOO. Div. VOL. n. 



ramparts form a favourite promenade. The higher Apennines rise 

 immediately behind, dividing the waters which run to the Mediter- 

 ranean by the valleys of Bisagno and Polcevera, from those which 

 flow northward into the Scrivia and the Bormida, two aflluents of the 

 Po. Upon the summits of these mountains, which are near enough 

 to command Genoa, are several detached forts, called II Diamante, 

 I Due Fratelli, Sta. Tecla, &c. The appearance of Genoa from the 

 sea is truly magnificent. A succession of fine buildings more than 

 two miles in length lines the shore ; numerous palaces and gardens, 

 churches and convents, rise behind like an amphitheatre, on the steep 

 sides of the hills that rear their dark and barren summits above, 

 crowned with formidable ramparts, batteries, and forts ; the buildings 

 are square and lofty, and the roofs are covered with light-coloured 

 slate, which has a neat and pleasing effect. The interior of the town 

 is hardly so pleasant ; the streets are very narrow, crooked, and steep, 

 with the exception of a few, such as Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova, 

 which are entirely lined with marble palaces belonging to the Genoese 

 patricians ; and the Strada Nuovissima, Carlo Felice, and Carlo Alberto, 

 which are also on a scale of considerable magnitude. Some of the 

 palaces in the Strada Nuova have galleries of paintings, and their 

 internal decorations and furniture are splendid. The palaces Serra, 

 Reale, Durazzo, Doria, and Brignole Rosso, are among the most 

 remarkable, but there are several others very little inferior either as 

 architectural works or for the richness of their contents. Geneva 

 la Superba, as it was of old named, is indeed one of the finest cities 

 in Italy, in an architectural point of view. Genoa has many hand- 

 some churches; the magnificent cathedral, L'Annunziata, and the 

 elegant church of Carignano, are among the finest : about half of the 

 churches of Genoa, and among them some of the finest, were destroyed 

 by the French during their occupation of the city. The Loggia de' 

 Banchi, where is the Exchange, the Ponti, or quays of the harbour, 

 the Porto Franco, or free-port warehouses, the lighthouse, the theatre 

 Carlo Felice, the promenade of L'AcquasoIa, the great hospital, Albergo 

 de' Poveri, the Ospedale del Pammatone, the former palace of the 

 Doges, the Banco di San-Giorgio, and the Goldsmiths' Street (Strada 

 degli Orefici), are all worthy of notice. 



Genoa is an important commercial city. The exports amount to 

 considerably over two millions sterling ; the imports to nearly three 

 millions. The principal articles of export are silk and fancy goods, 

 rice, hemp, oil, and fruits. Genoese vessels trade to the Levant, the 

 Black Sea, the Baltic, and to North and South America ; while steamers 

 maintain a regular communication with Marseille, Barcelona, Leg- 

 horn, Civita Vecchia, &o. The fine harbour is bounded at the two 

 extremities by substantial piers, the Molo Vecchio and the Molo 

 Nuovo, and above the latter is a noble lighthouse 300 feet high. The 

 Darsena, or state dock and arsenal, is a busy and well regulated 

 establishment. Connected with it is the Bagne for convicts. The 

 Porto Franco, or free port, referred to above, consists of a collection 

 of 355 bonding warehouses, forming a sort of town surrounded by a 

 wall, within which neither soldier, priest, nor female is allowed to 

 enter, except by special permission. It is under the management of 

 the chamber of commerce. There are extensive and convenient 

 quays along the harbour. The manufactures of the city are of con- 

 siderable importance. The principal are of velvets and other silk- 

 stuffs, embroidered cambrics, woollen goods, jewellery, surgical, 

 optical, and musical instruments, paper, canvass, artificial flowers, 

 coral ornaments, and various other fancy articles. In the making of 

 rich velvet, and gold and silver articles of a peculiar kind of filagree 

 work, the Genoese have long possessed, and still maintain, an almost 

 unrivalled celebrity ; but they are also very skilful artificers in many 

 other of the more elegant branches of mechanical art. 



Genoa is a garrison town, the residence of a governor-general, and 

 of a senate or high court of justice for the whole duchy. The French 

 civil and commercial codes have been retained, with some modifica- 

 tions. The government of the town is vested in a great town council, 

 consisting of 40 members, 20 of whom are nobles and 20 merchants, 

 a lower council, two syndics, with various other officers. For public 

 instruction there is the University, attended by between 500 and 600 

 students, a royal college, a naval school, and six communal schools, 

 one for each district of the town, a deaf and dumb school, an academy 

 of fine arts, public libraries, &c.. There are also 15 conservatore, or 

 female asylums, and various convents and benevolent institutions 

 besides those named above. 



Hittory of Genoa. The history of Genoa, or Genua (its Roman 

 name), is lost in the obscurity of old traditions, which would assign to 

 it an antiquity greater than that of Rome. It is mentioned by Livy 

 (xxi. 32) at the beginning of the second Punic war, when it appears 

 to have been a town in friendship with Rome. Some years after, 

 Mago, the Carthaginian general, coming with a fleet and army from 

 the Balearic Islands to effect a diversion in favour of Hannibal, took 

 Genua by surprise and partly destroyed it ; but it was restored two 

 or three years later by order of the Roman senate. (Livy, xxviii. 46; 

 xxx. 1.) From that time Genua appears to have continued in alliance 

 with Rome, but it was not a colony. Strabo (p. 201, Casaub.) men- 

 tions Genua as an emporium where the Ligures from the interior 

 brought for sale hides, cattle, honey, and timber for ship-building, and 

 received in exchange oil and wine from other parts of Italy. After 

 the fall of the Western empire Genoa was taken possession of by tho 



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