CIV
Sarzano-S.Agostino

On foot: Main access point from Piazza Dante through Porta Soprana. Secondary access routes are from Piazza Matteotti, Salita Pollaiuoli, Via Ravasco

By metro: Sarzano Sant’Agostino stop

By bus: Stops at Piazza Dante or Piazza De Ferrari

By train: Reachable from Genova Brignole Station and Genova Piazza Principe Station, connected by metro/bus

By car: pay car park in Piazza Carignano or Marina Parking. The nearest motorway exit is Genova Ovest for those coming from the west and Genova Est for those coming from the east.

CIV SARZANO-S.AGOSTINO
Indirizzo: Via Balbi 38 b Genova
Presidente CIV: Matteo Francesco Zedda
Telefono: 346 881 0911
Mail: sarzano.civ@gmail.com

Here is a list of places of interest related to this CIV, which you can explore further on the map above by looking for the icons of reference:

THINGS TO SEE

​ Piazza Sarzano:
Piazza Sarzano is one of the largest squares in the historical centre of Genoa. In the Middle Ages it was the only real public square within the city walls.

​ The house of Christopher Columbus:
Not far from Piazza Dante lies a particularly charming medieval site: as you climb up the short, cobbled slope of the historic Vico Dritto di Ponticello, you cross an area filled with monuments—a short journey through Genoa’s history. Amidst the Middle Ages and the age of discovery, you can almost feel the pulse of one of the city’s most fertile and fascinating periods in the city’s history and art. On the right, as you ascend, stands the house where Christopher Columbus spent his childhood years, from ages four to nine. While small, it serves as a poignant memorial to the most important explorer in history. Visitors can explore the interior and catch a glimpse of the life of this famous figure.

​ The St. Augustine Museum:
The museum is a harmonious blend of the ancient and the contemporary. Housed within the spaces of a medieval Augustinian convent complex dating back to the 13th century, it is in the heart of Genoa, adjacent to the deconsecrated church of Sant’Agostino. Restored and renovated by the Albini-Helg-Piva studio between 1977 and 1992, the museum seamlessly combines tradition and modernity. Founded in 1983, it is the most important museum of sculpture and architecture in Liguria.

Here is a list of places of interest related to this CIV, which you can explore further on the map above by looking for the icons of reference:

CURIOSITIES

The pillar of shame:
In Vico dei Tre Re Magi, named after the Oratory of the same name, which was tragically destroyed during the Second World War due to careless construction, stands a pillar of shame – the second of its kind in Genoa.

The two-faced head of Janus:
In Piazza Sarzano you can find the Tempietto di Giano, a structure built on top of a fountain connected to the cisterns below. In ancient times these cisterns provided the city with water during sieges and were also used to build the rigging of ships. In 1583, Bartolomeo Bianco built a temple-like structure above the well, with a dome supported by six columns and topped by a statue of the two-faced Janus. While the current statue is a replica, the original, weathered by time, can be found in the nearby Museum of St Augustine. Don’t miss it!

Here is a list of places of interest related to this CIV, which you can explore further on the map above by looking for the icons of reference:

“LIGHTING FOR GENOA” SQUARES

​ Salita alla Torre degli Embriaci:
“LEGGERA” – project by Giorgia Brusemini, Carla Morganti

“The 24h city is a phenomenon that increasingly shapes the way we experience urban life. A growing percentage of social and economic life now takes place in the hours after dark. Current developments towards 24h cities tend to blur our perception of day and night. As we start to understand the importance and distinctiveness of the different shades of night – from dusk till dawn – we shift away from seeing light as a purely functional element”.
Cities Alive_Rethinking the Shades of Night_Arup Lighting report The lighting design intervention has the intention of making this urban space, a green oasis of peace, even after sunset, inviting people to new practices of socialisation while fostering unusual cultural experiences, such as that of reading at night in the open air, already experimented in the past by Designer Brusemini with her temporary lighting interventions.
An aesthetic and formal metamorphosis takes place in the already existing benches, while remaining recognizable and usable during the day and suitable for accommodating 2 or more readers at night.
In the surrounding pedestrian paths, we recognize the poetic and evocative projections of the light that filters through the leaves and branches (in Japanese: Komorebi) by the lighting designer Carla Morganti, enhancing the local atmosphere, wrapping up and accompanying the visitor to catch the shadows, without fear even at sunset. In the use of a thoughtful and calibrated “gentle light”, the designers indicate new ways to live and enhance the outdoor common spaces, generating vibrant, thriving, safe and inclusive places around the clock for those who live, work and play in the city.

​ Piazza Stella:
“THE MELTING SPOT” – project by Beatrice Bertolini, Marta Mannino

The lighting design of Piazza Stella is inspired by the strong cultural vitality of the city and by the mosaic of ethnic groups that has always characterised Genoa as a port city.
People and their stories are the main character of the light installation, with which they interact creating an always different effects of coloured lights and shadows. By exploiting the “additive synthesis”, therefore combining the primary colours produced by light (red, blue and green) – white light is created; just as a unity is created from the mixing of colours, so the city of Genoa is formed from a intertwining of cultures. Street furniture elements were designed to house the light sources. In a quiescent city square, without patrons, light can “breathe”, to then awaken the colours as people passing – through the sensors.

​ Piazza Valoria:
“RIFLESSI DI VITA” – project by Camila Blanco

Once a meeting place for workers in the pious rooms of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Piazza Valoria is now a gathering point for artists, tourists, and Genoese alike. The rectangular structure, unchanged since the 16th century, is a space equally divided between lively restaurants and the activities of cultural associations (Pepita Ramone), all under the gaze of the 17th-century Madonna watching from the back wall of Palazzo Crosa Vergagni.
This interconnected usage is nothing more than a modern projection of the communal hearth that the community of Genoa recreates annually in this square through picturesque cultural events fostering community life.
The concept of the square’s lighting stems from this idea: to emphasize the community living in the square as if it were the living room of a house inhabited by all of Genoa. “The streets as corridors, the square as the living room of the home”: people will feel an even greater sense of belonging to the city, entering a space that is theirs, yet also everyone’s.