Palazzo Lomellino (Lomellino Palace), Genoa

The Podestà, or Nicolosio Lomellino, palace is a building at Via Garibaldi number 7.

It was built between 1559 and 1565 by Giovanni Battista Castello, known as "il Bergamasco", in collaboration with Bernardino Cantone at the behest of Nicolosio Lomellino, a highly influential relative of Prince Andrea Doria. In the early 17th century the palace was taken over by the Centurione family who carried out its internal restructuring. Eventually, the property fell into the hands of Andrea Podestà, who served as a mayor of Genoa several times from 1866 to 1895.

The façade, designed by il Bergamasco, is enlivened by a rich stucco decoration, with winged female herms supporting the string course on the ground floor; ribbons and drapes holding trophies of arms on the first floor; and garlands and masks crowning the windows, with classical figures within oval medallions, on the second. While most of the stucco decoration is attributed to Marcello Sparzo from Urbino, the festive stucco apparatus of the oval-shaped atrium, introducing the latest Mannerist culture to Genoa, was by il Bergamasco himself.

The oldest pictorial work in the building is the cycle of frescoes created in 1623-1624 by the Genoese painter Bernardo Strozzi. For years, it was hidden from view by a thick layer of plaster and false ceiling following a dispute with the client, Luigi Centurione, who had bought the building in 1609 from Nicolosio Lomellino. Uncovered in 2002, the fresco, still unfinished, offers a rare opportunity to observe the grid and the preparatory drawing made with black chalk.

On the second, main floor, the mythological-themed decoration from the early 18th century provides great example of the Genoese late Baroque. In the hall, decorated by Tommaso Aldrovandini, there are five canvases with Stories of Diana, created by the Bolognese painter Marcantonio Franceschini.