The fountain standing on Piazza Italia was not made for the square: it was carved between 1685 and 1687 for the garden of Palazzo Doria, together with a second basin in Finale stone, when the Doria ruled Loano as an imperial fief and kept the town full of building sites.
What to see
It is a sizeable piece of marble machinery: roughly four metres tall, with a basin about as wide. The name people in Loano use, Giovanna, is also the one under which it is listed in the national heritage catalogue, protected since 12 February 1937. On the author the sources disagree: local ones name the sculptor Taddeo Carlone, while the ministry record credits the architect Giovanni Battista Cantone.
Around it stands the palace the fountain was meant for. Palazzo Doria was built between 1574 and 1578, possibly to a design by Galeazzo Alessi, and is now the town hall: you can pick out the sixteenth-century slate portal, the painted loggia on the left flank and, inside, a mosaic floor of the third century brought in from local archaeological digs.
Visiting
Piazza Italia is the main square of Loano, right in the centre, a few minutes from the seafront and little more than ten minutes on foot from the harbour. The fountain is in the open, always visible, with no opening times and no ticket. Made for a private garden and now a piece of public furniture, it rewards a walk right around it, since the reliefs and the carved inscription turn up on different sides.
Our editors' tip
Slip behind Palazzo Doria, where the little bridge the townspeople call “du nicciu”, the bridge of the niche, still stands: Andrea III Doria had it built in 1691 to cross the Nimbalto and link the back of the palace to via delle Fontane, the street leading to the convent of Monte Carmelo. In a few steps you see how the Loano of the Doria worked: garden, water, bridge, convent.