In 1815 Pope Pius VII leaned out of the highest window of this building and blessed the crowd gathered in the street below: a plaque set by the entrance, placed in 1923, still records that day. The house, which many in Campomorone still call palazzo Delle Piane, was built between 1590 and 1595 for the marquis Costantino Pinelli, at a time when Genoese patricians were filling the valley with villas and moving part of their business inland. It has changed owners and purpose several times since, and ended up as the town hall.
What to see
The plan is irregular, the result of the enlargements ordered in the seventeenth century by Francesco Maria Balbi. The ground-floor rooms are vaulted; from there a wide staircase climbs to the piano nobile, the floor meant for receiving. The palace later passed to the marquis Giacomo Antonio Balbi, who in 1777 had a second building put up nearby, known in the village as the Cabanun: its lower level held fountains and small artificial grottoes, very much the taste of Genoese gardens in those years.
Two municipal collections now share the building with the council offices: the civic museum of palaeontology and mineralogy and the puppet museum. After the Balbi family the property went to the Spinola, and then to a local nobleman, Luigi Delle Piane, from whom the palace takes its second name.
Visiting
The building stands on via Antonio Gavino, in the centre of Campomorone, in the Polcevera valley behind Genoa. It has housed the town council since 1861 — before that the comune sat at Larvego — so the entrance hall and the staircase can be seen during office hours; for the two museums it is worth calling the comune first, since it runs the openings. The façade and the plaque are there at any time.
Our editors' tip
Before going in we spend a couple of minutes at the doorway reading the plaque of 1923, then look up to work out which window the blessing came from: it is the highest one, and it changes the way you read the façade. Then we ask about the puppet museum, the least predictable part of the house. If there is time, look for the nearby district of Paxu, where civil and criminal trials were once held.