Piazza De Ferrari

View of the east side of Piazza De Ferrari, towards Via XX Settembre and Via Dante

Piazza De Ferrari is the main square of Genoa.

Situated in the heart of the city between the historical and the modern center, Piazza De Ferrari is renowned for its fountain, which was restored in recent years along with a major restyling of the square.

Today next to Piazza De Ferrari are numerous office buildings, headquarters of banks, insurances and other private companies, making of this district the financial and business centre of Genoa, so that Genoeses popularly refer to it as the "City" of Genoa.

At the end of the 19th century Genoa was the main financial centre of Italy along with Milan, and Piazza De Ferrari was the place where many institutions were established, like the stock exchange, the Credito Italiano,^[1] the branch offices of the Bank of Italy, founded in 1893.

Historical palaces

An old postcard of Piazza De Ferrari

Next to the square are several historical palaces and buildings.

• The Palace of the Doges
• The headquarters of the Ligurian Region (the former Palazzo Italia di Navigazione).
• The palace of the Ligurian Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1741.
• The Theatre Carlo Felice, with its neoclassic pronao designed by the Italian architect Carlo Barabino and the equestrian statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, work of the Italian sculptor Augusto Rivalta.
• The building of the stock exchange, built in 1912 by the architect Alfredo Coppedè.
• The palace of the Duke of Galliera, Raffaele De Ferrari, to whom the square is dedicated.

Public transport

An underground station of the Genoa Metro opened at Piazza De Ferrari on 4 February 2005.^[2] The square is also served by the Genoa trolleybus system – by route 30 since 1997 and by route 20 since 2008.

References

1. Credito Italiano
2. Tramways & Urban Transit, April 2005, p. 149. Ian Allan Ltd./Light Rail Transit Association (UK). ISSN 1460-8324.

Coordinates: 44°24′25.57″N 8°56′3.23″E / 44.4071028°N 8.9342306°E