I Rolli di Genova
When the palaces couldn’t open their doors, we opened them online. Rolli Digital Week: the video story of Genoa’s World Heritage palaces, launched in 2020 to bring the Rolli into every home.
01The Palazzi dei Rolli
Between 1576 and 1588 the Republic of Genoa established the Rolli, official lists of private residences deemed worthy of hosting, in rotation, State visits by kings, popes and ambassadors: a system of public hospitality that turned Strada Nuova — today’s Via Garibaldi — and the neighboring streets of the historic center into one of the most extraordinary concentrations of aristocratic residences in Europe. In 2006 UNESCO inscribed 42 of these palaces, with their decorative schemes, frescoes and gardens, on the World Heritage List as “The Strade Nuove and the System of the Palazzi dei Rolli”.
Every year, in May and October, the Rolli Days event opens the doors of these palaces to the public — many of which are still private residences or institutional premises not normally open to visitors — with guided tours led by science communicators who tell their history, the families who commissioned them, and their artistic schemes.
02Rolli Digital Week
In May 2020, with the city still in the grip of the pandemic and the palaces unable to open physically, the City of Genoa chose not to give up Rolli Days: it turned it into Rolli Digital Week, the event’s first entirely digital edition. The City commissioned Liguria Digitale and our production team — Xenia Creative Team — to film and edit the video stories of the palaces, with scientific coordination by Giacomo Montanari and coordination of the outreach team by Marianna Pisanu, under the direction of Events Councillor Barbara Grosso.
A group of young science communicators brought the camera into entrance halls, grand staircases and frescoed salons normally closed to the public, presenting each palace with the same care as a live guided tour: among the palaces featured were Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Brignole Duraz, Palazzo Fieschi Negrone, Palazzo Tobia Pallavicino, Palazzo Balbi Senarega, Palazzo Interiano Pallavicino, Palazzo Angelo Giovanni Spinola, Palazzo Ambrogio di Negro and Palazzo Tomaso Spinola Pessagno.
03The story on video
One of the video stories produced for Rolli Digital Week
04A national showcase: Rai Cultura
The Palazzi dei Rolli are also featured by Rai Cultura, which dedicates a multimedia special to the Genoese heritage with historical and artistic insights into the palaces and their history. A further recognition of the cultural value of the Rolli system, alongside the digital storytelling produced by Renovatio and its partners.
«When the palaces couldn’t open, we told their story anyway — bringing the Rolli into every home.»
Rolli Digital Week, May 2020