Dati storico-archeologici dell’arsenale di Genova. Dal sottosuolo all’elevato

Besides the extensive collection of documentary and iconographic sources, our knowledge of the port of Genoa can now count on the results of archaeological excavations. In 1988 investigations carried out during electricity works led to the identification of structures of the medieval mole, whose memory had been preserved only in a street name (‘Via del Molo’); this discovery has made it possible to locate the medieval military harbour in the area of Mandraccio. Presumably without installations to house the ships, it was abandoned in the early 14th C. because the basin had silted up; but already in the second half of the 13th C. the military harbour had been transferred west of the old mole (‘Spiaggia di Pré’), not far from the Hospital of the Hospitallers of Jerusalem, and was to remain there until the fall of the Republic of Genoa at the end of the 18th C. and the complete transformation into warehouses. Excavations carried out in 1992 on the occasion of the celebration of Columbus, re- vealed remains of the medieval arsenals, and made clear the arrangement of the basin in front, protected by a breakwater and divided into two sectors: the ‘darsena dell’arsenale’ and the ‘darsena del vino’. In 1982 in the same area, during work on the construction of a purification plant, seven pilasters of the medieval period were found, not aligned with the par- allel walls delimiting the slipways. Excavations in 2000-1 followed by a survey campaign in 2001-2, both carried out during work on the reclamation and restoration for the new Maritime Museum in the former Galata Quarter, were con- centrated on the structures of the ‘New Arsenal’ or ‘New Arches’, which in the early 17th C. were built to the east of, and adjoining, the Old Arsenal. The ‘New Arches’ complex originally consisted of eight slipways, intercommunicating through archways, and were destined in time to be reduced in number. The excavations have distinguished various lev- els of pavement, and identified in one sector a dry dock. The archaeological analysis of the building elevation detected the original 17th century structure of the shipyard as it was described in ancient documents. The pillar and arch structure was completely hidden by later parts of the building and it was presumed completely lost. This structure was absorbed in the second half of the 18th century by a continu- ous one: stone and brick walls with barrel vaults in stone chips; giving rise to four levels of large galleries, more than 50 meters long with large stone vaults, 9 meters wide. Archaeological investigation led to comprehension of the building transformations, using a rigorous survey of the structure and scientific analyses.