Wandering the narrow alleys (called caruggi in Italian) of Genoa’s old city is magical. Tiny corridors open to small piazzas. Wider streets (though barely enough to fit a car, even if such things were allowed, which they are largely not) lined with shops, restaurants, and cafes host magnificent architecture, buildings with carved stone facades that would be the envy of any city in the world. Church towers become visible for a moment between buildings before disappearing again.

One of the largest and densest populated old towns in Europe, what we call Genoa’s old city is what basically fit inside of the 12th century walls. And it is the first iteration of a city that would become one of the most powerful and prosperous in the world.

While the area that is now Genoa has been inhabited for several millennia, and was more recently a Roman city as well as being held by the Ostrogoths and Byzantines, it is really the end of the 11th century that Genoa emerged onto the world stage. Having been rebuilt after a sacking in 935 by the Fatimid Caliphate, the new city-state was approached in 1096 to join the First Crusade. A Genoese fleet of twelve galleys and 1200 soldiers (mostly crossbowmen) joined, and their presence was credited for the Christian victory at Antioch in 1098.

Riches acquired during the crusade paled in comparison to trade routes built, mainly with the Byzantine Empire and even into North Africa, as a result of the city’s naval presence, and the new wealth would help to fuel the growing Genoa. The city adopted a constitution in 1099, becoming known as the Republic of Genoa.

The newly wealthy and powerful city needed a corresponding building program. And as with most Christian cities of the time, that would center on a cathedral. The Cathedral of San Lorenzo was consecrated in 1118, and while it wouldn’t be fully completed for a couple more centuries (buildings of this size tend to take quite a while), it would at least be built to last, as it still stands today. (This is despite taking a direct hit – mistakenly – from a shell fired by the British battleship HMS Malaya in 1941, which apparently pierced the building but didn’t detonate.)

Behind the Gothic facade (completed in the early 1300s), the cathedral is more Romanesque than anything, a reflection of the length of time needed to complete the interior. (Romanesque was a precursor to the more embellished Gothic style of the 13th through 16th centuries.) That interior features relatively simply topped columns to either side of the main nave, done in a double deck of arches. Both the arches and the exterior main facade feature the striped stonework repeated on many similar-era cathedrals throughout Italy.

Parts of the interior ceiling hold frescoes or other embellishments. The interior of the central dome, however, is merely plastered white, as is much of the nave’s ceiling.

The tower (which can be climbed for a fee) and the dome were added later, with the tall bell tower featuring a 1522 date on the outside that I am guessing reflects that portion’s completion.

Genoese imagery can be found all over, from the red cross on white of the republic’s flag over the main altar to the lions to either side of the main entrance.

Of course, any cathedral of the era needed an artifact to attract pilgrims. Returning from the First Crusade, the Genoese brought back a basin of green glass. Called the Sacro Catino, it was originally believed – or at least so people were told – to be the Holy Grail, although subsequent study has found it more likely to be a 9th century Islamic artifact. But hey, whatever sells to the faithful and brings acclaim to your city, right? (The dish, which was taken to France by Napoleon, subsequently broken, returned in ten pieces to Genoa in 1816, and finally fully restored in 2017, can be seen today in the Treasures Room of the cathedral, again for an additional fee. The entrance chamber to that room has a beautiful frescoed ceiling, making it worth at least getting to the ticket desk before turning around if you don’t wish to pay for the additional ticket.)

The early Republic of Genoa quickly found itself in need of new defenses. In 1154, Frederick Barbarossa (who would be crowned Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, the following year) invaded Italy. He quickly conquered Republican Rome, hence the coronation there in 1155, and then turned back north, attacking other city-states as he moved back toward his home in Germany. Genoa feared for its safety, and new city walls were hastily built to enclose the majority of the city that was outside the earlier 9th century walls.

These new walls were built in an astonishing 53 days, such was the fear of Barbarossa, and so great was that reasoning for building them that they would remain known to this day as the Barbarossa Walls! (To be fair, some construction continued until 1163, but the main portions were done that quickly.)

Three gates were included in the walls, each with two high semicircular towers. Two of those still stand. One, the Porta dei Vacca, lies on the northwest of Genoa’s old city, and has one half enclosed within a more modern apartment building.

The other, Porta Soprana, tops St. Andrew hill, and is one of the most recognizable features of the city, as well as the high point of Genoa at the time. It is here that the largest surviving portion of the Barbarossa Walls can also be found.

While Barbarossa never attacked Genoa, the new city defenses and the strength of the Genoese navy cemented the republic’s status as the Western Mediterranean power, with its only true rival Venice. It was a strong beginning for the new Republic of Genoa.

Things would get a lot less rosy in the coming centuries, however, with the democratic nature of the city in doubt and Genoa’s place leading the way in the trading of slaves in the Black Sea. And that is where our story will pick up next time.

For now, the early glory days of Genoa stand strong in the old city’s beauty and, yes, chaos. It is a gem to explore, and with each turn in the narrow caruggi, to appreciate and to learn about the founding of the republic.

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