Musei di Strada Nuova

The Musei di Strada Nuova is the principal art gallery of Genoa, Italy, comprising three adjacent historic palaces, Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Tursi, situated at the end of the monumental Via Garibaldi, formerly known as Strada Nuova. Established in 2004 as a unified museum with a single visitor route and single ownership, it brings together collections that had previously existed as separate institutions. Palazzo Tursi also serves as Genoa's city hall. The complex functions as the city's main showcase for ancient art, offering a continuous itinerary through centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, alongside ancillary services including a cafeteria, bookshop, and an auditorium for conferences and temporary exhibitions.

The unified institution dates to 2004, when the municipal administration decided to link the three palaces into a single visitor route under common ownership. This decision built upon much older foundations. Palazzo Rosso had functioned as an independent museum since 1874, and Palazzo Bianco since 1892, giving each over a century of individual institutional history. Palazzo Tursi, meanwhile, was partially converted to cultural uses in the same year of unification. Despite the new integrated branding and a single ticket, the two older museums retained their established individual identities. A significant architectural addition came in 2016 with the creation of an elevated walkway connecting Palazzo Bianco to Palazzo Tursi, which crosses the site of the destroyed convent of San Francesco di Castelletto. Since 25 June 2010, the museum has offered extended Friday evening hours until 23:00.

The collections span from the 15th to the 20th centuries, with particular strengths in Italian, Flemish, and Spanish painting. The itinerary is organized chronologically and geographically: Palazzo Rosso presents European painting from the 15th through 19th centuries along with furnishings from the 18th and 20th centuries; Palazzo Bianco focuses on art produced in Genoa and Liguria from the 15th century onward, including substantial holdings of Flemish and Spanish painters on its upper floors; and Palazzo Tursi houses municipal collections including weights and measures of the ancient Republic of Genoa, ceramics, coins and medals, and dedicated Paganini rooms. The 2016 walkway incorporates archaeological elements, displaying surviving nave arches, marble and stone fragments from the convent, and an excavated area revealing ancient burial chambers for Franciscan friars. The upper archaeological garden at Palazzo Bianco preserves architectural and sculptural remains from medieval buildings destroyed during 19th-century urban transformation.

The museum preserves works by major European masters. In Palazzo Rosso, highlights include paintings by Gerard David, Paolo Veronese, including Susannah and the Elders and Judith Beheading Holofernes, Caravaggio's Ecce Homo, Simon Vouet's David with the Head of Goliath, Mattia Preti's The Incredulity of Saint Thomas and The Resurrection of Lazarus, Bernardo Strozzi's Woman Cooking and The Piper, Albrecht Durer's Portrait of a Young Venetian, Peter Paul Rubens's Venus and Mars, Guido Reni's Saint Sebastian, and multiple works by Anthony van Dyck including Vetumnus and Pomona, The Tribute Money, Christ Carrying the Cross, and several portraits of the Brignole Sale family. Palazzo Bianco contains Hans Memling's Blessing Christ, Joos van Cleve's Virgin and Child, Filippino Lippi's Lomellini Altarpiece, Giorgio Vasari's Portrait of a Florentine Gentleman, and Francisco de Zurbaran's Saint Ursula and Saint Euphemia from his series of female saints. The itinerary culminates at Palazzo Tursi with Antonio Canova's Penitent Magdalene, the plaster cast believed to precede the marble version now in Padua, and Il Cannone, the 1742 violin by Giuseppe Guarneri that was Niccolo Paganini's preferred instrument, donated to the city of Genoa in his will.

The three palaces, all municipal property, are located on Via Garibaldi in Genoa's historic center. They are part of the Palazzi dei Rolli, the system of aristocratic residences that constituted the city's architectural prestige. Palazzo Rosso, the former residence of the Brignole-Sale family, and Palazzo Bianco, with its prestigious picture gallery, frame the museum experience, while Palazzo Tursi, also known as Palazzo Doria-Tursi, doubles as Genoa's city hall. The 2016 connecting walkway between Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi is a notable architectural intervention that traverses archaeological layers, integrating the material remains of the former convent into the museum path. The complex thus layers Renaissance and Baroque palace architecture with medieval archaeological fragments and modern museum infrastructure.

The Musei di Strada Nuova is located in the historic center of Genoa, Italy, on Via Garibaldi. The museum is owned by the municipality of Genoa and operates as the city's primary art museum complex. Visitors follow a single route through all three palaces on one ticket. The museum provides additional amenities including a cafeteria, bookshop, and the Palazzo Rosso auditorium, which hosts congresses, conferences, and temporary exhibitions. Since 25 June 2010, extended hours until 23:00 are offered on Fridays. Official information is available through the City of Genoa museums website.