St. George and the Dragon

St. George, or San Giorgio, is a very important figure here in Genova.   The symbol of the city is the Saint George cross, red cross on white background, as seen in the right hand column of this blog, not to be confused with white cross on red background which is the symbol of Switzerland.

The cross dates back at least to the time of the Crusades. The use of the cross as the symbol of Genova, probably dates back to the same era when the flag of the Genovese garrison, the red cross on white background, was taken as tribute to the small church of San Giorgio in the ancient Roman market square in what is now Via Giustiniani.

In 1190, around the time Richard the Lion Heart sailed for Sicily on the 3rd Crusade, the City of London and England requested the use of the flag to fly on their ships when they sailed in seas controlled by the Genovese fleet.  This at one time meant almost the entire Mediterranean and the Black Sea.  The Genovese were so respected, or more likely feared, that pirates were often unwilling to attack ships which flew her flag.  For the privilege of flying this flag, Richard paid an annual tribute to the doge of Genova.  This is not to suggest that the English were not already familiar with this flag since armed English crusaders were probably wearing it in the battle of Antioch in 1098 during the first Crusade.

Symbols of St. George are everywhere, but the most beautiful is this fresco on the front of the Palazzo San Giorgio in Piazza Caricamento.

It's really difficult to get a decent picture of this because the world's ugliest freeway, the Sopraelevata, runs right over Piazza Caricamento and in order to get a good shot, you'd have to stand on the freeway.  Something I'm not willing to do, even for you.

That's the aquarium on the other side of the freeway.  An absolute must for visitors.

This beautiful building sits directly in front of the Porto Antico or ancient port.  It was originally built in 1260 by Guglielmo Boccanegra, the uncle of Simon Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genova.  (If you are an opera lover, listen to Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra and think of Genova.) Interestingly, the materials used for this building come from the Embassy of the Republic of Venice in Constantinople.  Given to the Republic of Genova, or more importantly to the virtual dictator Guglielmo Boccanegra, by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII, it was a reward for Genova's assistance in the Byzantine battle against the Latin Empire.  300 years later, Venice and Genova, traditional enemies, would join Spain and others in defeating the Ottoman Empire's incursions into Europe at the battle of Lepanto.

The Palazzo is actually two buildings.  The original one made of brick from the Venetian Embassy.

When Guglielmo Boccanegra was deposed and forced to flee the city, the Palazzo was turned into a prison.  It was here, during his year of captivity as a prisoner of war, the Venetian Marco Polo dictated his memoirs, The Travels of Marco Polo to Rustichello of Pisa.  I can't help but wonder which of these windows Marco Polo might have spent his days looking out of.  I'd chose one with an air conditioner.

In 1407, the Palazzo San Georgio became the headquarters of the Banco di San Georgio, one of the oldest banks in the world, but also the most powerful.  Run by a quartet of consuls, the bank was effectively it's own country within a country.  The bank had greater wealth than it's clients and for 400 years it financed the ambitions of foreign and local princes including the King of Spain.  Much of Spain's gold and silver from the Americas found it's way into these vaults.  It was only in 1804, that Napoleon forced it's closure.

Today, the Palazzo is the home of the Port Authority.  Situated as it is in Piazza Caricamento or "loading Piazza", it's not difficult to transport yourself back to the days when ships unloaded their freight at these very docks to be assessed dogana or customs.

 Wish I could say this was an original galleon, but in reality it was built for Roman Polanski's film Pirates.

Unfortunately, the interior of the building is no longer open to the public, but I was able to get this picture of an antique embroidery showing the city's symbol with recognition of the importance of the sea.

I was going to post this on April 23 since that is the St. George's day, but I found myself caught up in some conflict on a Scottish Facebook page, that completely distracted me.  As you may or may not know, St. George is the patron saint of England.  Not Great Britain, England.  But this is way too complicated to get into here.

As it turns out, it's a good thing that I didn't post on the 26th.  I kept waiting and waiting for something special to happen around here.  Afterall, it's St. George's saints day, isn't the city of San Giorgio going to throw a bash.  As it turns out, St. George isn't the patron saint of Genova.  People think he is, but in reality, St. John the Baptist is the patron saint of Genova.  At least it gives me something to look forward to on June 24, or maybe August 29.  I'm really not clear on this concept, but apparently John the Baptist gets two saints days, one on the day of his birth, and one on the day of his death.  We shall see what the city of Genova does with it's options.

** For those of you who were really disappointed at not seeing Garibaldi in his red cape, I've posted this picture of Garibaldi who is for some reason still wearing his cape.

I realize this looks really fake, but I promise I didn't Photoshop this picture.