Location

The WTE of Genoa at Palazzo della Meridiana

It will be one of the Palazzi dei Rolli that will host the 2024 edition of the WTE in Genoa from 12 to 14 September. The b2b workshop of the first day and the exhibition and conference areas, in fact, will be set up inside the Palazzo della Meridiana. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2006 as part of the System of Palazzi dei Rolli and Strade Nuove in the historic center of Genoa, it represents important evidence of the history and grandeur of the Ligurian capital.

MERIDIANA PALACE

Palazzo della Meridiana, or Palazzo Grimaldi della Meridiana, was built at the behest of the Genoese banker Gerolamo Grimaldi Oliva after his return to Genoa from Spain in 1516. Upon his death and by his will, the palace passed to his only son, Battista, who was responsible for completing the internal decoration of the palace, carried out between 1565 and 1566 with the intervention of Bergamasco, Luca Cambiaso, Perolli and Lazzaro Calvi. The highest façade was frescoed with the “Stories of Hercules”, attributed to Aurelio Busso. In that same period, the subdivision of the area, which until then had been little or not at all urbanized, also began, the “Strada Nuova” route was traced and the sumptuous buildings that crown it began to be built. In the second half of the 18th century, the square, later known as the Meridiana, was built and the palace partly renovated. Starting from the 19th century, a series of changes of ownership began which, especially with the interventions of Gino Coppedé at the beginning of the 20th century, significantly modified the building, which also became a military hospital during the First World War and, subsequently, a public building for the Municipality of Genoa. The last change of ownership dates back to 2004 – two years before the inclusion of the Rolli palaces in the WHL – when the building was purchased by the Palazzo Meridiana srl ​​company, which still manages it combining museum use with commercial use.