Castello D'Albertis

The Castle, home of the Museum of World Cultures, born between 1886 and 1892 from an idea of the captain on the remains of the Montegalletto, was built on the architectural design of D'Andrade and Crotta, assisted by the sculptor Allegro and by the archaeologist Campora. The desire to escape the degradation one of the symbols of the former greatness of Genoa, it takes the form of a collage of quotations erudite mainly inspired to the medievale Genovese architecture (Embriaci Tower, Palazzo San Giorgio) with frequent digressions into the exotic and oriental atmosphere typical of the Western  imagery during the century. Original personality, D'Albertis, transposes into the project the experiences of a life dedicated to the sea, to the exploration and ethnographic research, in order to achieve its scientific-cultural model: a museum ahead of its time with a central room dedicated to Colombo, to emphasize his admiration towards the great navigator of which attempts, with the Corsair, to retrace the route of the discovery of the quadricentennial. At his home he reserves only some rooms, including the bedroom, organized as a real ship cabin oriented to the Lantern. The castle, owned by the city since 1932, has been recovered for the latest Columbus celebrations: a long restoration has emptied the ramparts and the spaces between the buttresses, recovering the base of the medieval tower and expanding the exhibition space, transforming a home-museum into a modern museum.