| Via Venti Settembre | |
 | |
| Former name(s) | via Giulia, via di Porta Pila, via della Consolazione |
|---|---|
| Length | 0.850 km (0.528 mi) |
| Location | San Vincenzo, Genoa, Italy |
| Postal code | I-16121 |
Via XX Settembre is one of the main thoroughfares in the center of Genoa, Italy, located within the San Vincenzo district. It is slightly less than a kilometer long.
It runs east–west and, along with Corso Italia - the promenade along the seafront - is one of the main streets for strolling and shopping in the city, located in the city center. It traverses the two central districts of Portoria (the first stretch, with arcades, from Piazza De Ferrari to the Monumental Bridge) and San Vincenzo (from the Monumental Bridge to the junction with Via Cadorna near Piazza della Vittoria).[1][2]
It intersects with numerous streets along its length, some of which were pedestrianized during the renovation work for the G8 Summit in 2001, and is rich with elegant shops. It serves as a link between the eastern part of the city, which faces east of the Bisagno river, and the western part developed beyond Largo della Zecca, towards Principe. In particular, it connects Piazza della Vittoria to Piazza De Ferrari, two of the city's major squares.[1][2]
Almost exclusively lined with shops and city offices, Via XX Settembre slopes slightly upwards towards the west (although vehicle traffic flows in the opposite direction) and is adorned with some of the city's most imposing buildings; in the upper part of the street, a series of long arcades stretch along both sides, reaching the entrances of the Teatro Carlo Felice on the right side.[1][2]
Along Via XX Settembre are some of the most prestigious shops and elegant cafés. Until the 1980s, the street was also rich in cinemas and theaters (such as Cinema Olimpia and Teatro Margherita), making it nationally known as "the street of cinemas".[3]
![The central area corresponding to Via Giulia, Via della Consolazione, and Via Porta Pia, map published in 1886[4]](/en/File:Genova_centro_1886.png)
![The central area corresponding to Via Giulia, Via della Consolazione, and Via Porta Pia, map published in 1906,[5] after the construction of Via XX Settembre.](/en/File:Genova_centro_1906.png)
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The street was built in the last decade of the 19th century, rectifying and expanding the path of Via Giulia and Via della Consolazione, to create a new route towards the east, which until then had inadequate outlets for the city's urban expansion. The name of the new street was the subject of heated discussions at the time, until the desire of many citizens to have the historic date of the Capture of Rome recognized prevailed.[7]
The street was strongly advocated by Mayor Andrea Podestà, but opposed by the resident population because building it required demolishing houses and shops. Especially opposed were the religious of the Church of the Remedy, expropriated to make way for the artery. Among the other necessary demolitions was the one, hindered by the government, of the Sant'Andrea prisons.[7]
The stretch of road affecting the district of San Vincenzo (from the Monumental Bridge to Via Fiume), while not having the sumptuous appearance of the part between Piazza De Ferrari and the Monumental Bridge, characterized by high arcades with Venetian flooring, is equally filled with elegant palaces and shops, making the street one of the city's most frequented destinations for shopping and strolling. At the time of its opening, the street, wide, straight, and lined with buildings of unusual height for the times, more similar to the sumptuous Via Giuseppe Garibaldi of the Renaissance period, represented a novelty for the area, which until then had narrower streets and characteristic alleyways. The competition for the construction of the new street was announced in 1883, after nearly twenty years of debate, and only in 1887 was the project by Cesare Gamba approved. Work began in 1892. The lower part was first completed, with the reorganization of the former Via della Consolazione, finished the following year; the street was inaugurated on January 18, 1896. The construction of the various buildings facing the street would be completed only in 1913. All pre-existing buildings, except for the Church of the Consolation and the attached convent, were demolished and replaced by new buildings, constructed for the first time in Genoa in reinforced concrete.[8][2][9]
The street was built on the route of the previous via Giulia, for the stretch from Piazza De Ferrari (then Piazza San Domenico, named after the homonymous church no longer existing) to the Monumental Bridge, and Via della Consolazione, for the stretch beyond the Monumental Bridge to Porta Pila.[10] A project to expand via Giulia (a road dating back to the 17th century and modified several times to improve its accessibility for carts and carriages) had already been approved in 1840, but the practice was then blocked due to appeals by the owners of the buildings that would have been demolished or modified, and therefore in the following decades only minor works were carried out to reduce the slope by lowering the road level.[10]
Via XX Settembre was redesigned on the axis of the two streets when, at the end of the 19th century, starting from 1892, the urban reorganization of the entire city center was decided. The design of the street was entrusted to the engineer Cesare Gamba.[11] Along its route, and likewise in adjacent streets, the most emphatic Liberty-style buildings in the city were erected between 1892 and 1912. The street was built in two stages (a first lower stretch from Porta Pila to Porta d'Archi and an upper one from Porta d'Archi to Piazza De Ferrari), not without economic difficulties (the banking crisis of 1894 affected some of the entities that had financed the works) and the projects related to individual buildings, as well as the characteristics of the future street (such as the presence or absence of arcades), were modified several times over the years to adapt to the changing demands and needs of the municipality and the companies constructing them.
Crossing it longitudinally, approximately halfway along its route, is the Monumental Bridge, an imposing marble structure with multiple arches. The Monumental Bridge stands in the same place where the Porta dell'Arco, of the 16th-century walls, the so-called New Walls, once stood. Its role, like that of the Porta dell'Arco, is to link two systems of viaducts, one lower (Via XX Settembre) and one upper (Corso Podestà). It was built with a double design. The engineering part was again entrusted to the engineer Cesare Gamba, who realized (1895) an immense arch with a structure similar to those of railway bridges; it was overlaid with a monumental marble apparatus, with columns and sculptures.
Just before the Monumental Bridge is the Church dedicated to Santa Rita, called the Nostra Signora della Consolazione e San Vincenzo martire, whose entrance, corresponding to the level of the old streets, remains slightly lower than the current roadbed. Immediately beyond, raised above the street, is the Church of Santo Stefano, of Romanesque architecture and rebuilt on the remains of an ancient abbey Benedictine.
The street and its buildings, like much of the city, suffered heavy damage during the bombings on Genoa during World War II. Many civil and public structures were almost completely destroyed and then rebuilt, including: the aforementioned Church of Santo Stefano,[12] the Teatro Margherita, and various others.[13] Others were more or less seriously damaged, such as the Palazzo Orzali,[14] the Palazzo Pesce Manieri,[15][16][17] and some of the palaces of Dario Carbone[18] and others.
During the city's redevelopment for the G8 summit in 2001, the sidewalks on half of the street facing Piazza De Ferrari were widened by several meters to allow for increased pedestrian traffic.
The long artery opened in the late nineteenth century is divided in two by the Monumental Bridge: the buildings in the upper part are equipped with arcades and architecturally more elegant, while in the eastern part prevail structures in reinforced concrete, innovative for the time, enriched by typical decorations of the Art Nouveau, which characterizes much of the new central areas of the city, or by traditional elements, inspired by Mannerist architecture or Florentine Gothic. There are numerous buildings of architectural interest, many of which are subject to architectural constraints.[8][19][20]
The University of Genoa highlights among those worthy of artistic and architectural interest the civic buildings 1, 2, 3, 5, 8c, 10 - 12, 16 - 18, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 30 - 32, 34, 36, 42.[2] In the design, some of the most well-known Italian engineers and architects of the time were involved, such as Gino Coppedè, Luigi Rovelli, Benvenuto Pesce Maineri, Cesare Gamba, Dario Carbone, Gaetano Orzali, Stefano Cuneo, Raffaele Croce, Giuseppe Tallero, G. B. Carpineti, the Celle brothers, and others. Among the most significant buildings are:
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The Monumental Bridge, connecting the walls of Acquasola with those of S. Chiara, was built according to the design of Cesare Gamba[26] and Riccardo Haupt between 1893 and 1895, replacing the Porta degli Archi, dismantled and rebuilt on the Walls of Prato. On the bridge, which crosses Via XX Settembre, runs Corso Andrea Podestà, which runs along the bastions of the sixteenth-century walls and connects Piazza Corvetto with the area of Carignano. Becoming one of the symbolic places of the modern city, it divides the Portoria area from that of S. Vincenzo and offers an excellent view over the underlying Via XX Settembre. The bridge, 21 meters high above the street level of Via XX Settembre, is built of stone and bricks, following the typology of the railway arches in use at that time, but was later externally clad in white stone from Mazzano.
In 1949, the two side arches, decorated with statues by Nino Servettaz, were dedicated to the fallen for freedom: some epigraphs remember the names of the Resistance fighters, the surrender of the German troops under General Meinhold to the Ligurian National Liberation Committee (April 25, 1945), and the text of the motivation for which Genoa was awarded the gold medal of the Resistance in 1947.[27][19][28][29]
