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Genoa, Italy, City of

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

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(Italian: Genova)

City and former republic, Italy. An important seaport in ancient and medieval times, the republic enjoyed municipal freedom from 1339, when the first doge was elected, until 1797, but was always the center of strife and rebellion. Its first bishop was Saint Solomon, martyred, 269; first archbishop, Saint Dyrus, 1133. The city aided in the First Crusade, was the seat of a university founded by Bartolomeo Bianco (1471), was the home of Innocent IV and Adrian V, and the scene of several councils, in 733,1216, and 1292. It was the birth-place of Christopher Columbus. The churches of San Lorenzo, founded, 1100, Saint Catherine of Genoa, where the saint's body is preserved in a silver urn, Saints Cosmas and Damian, antedating 1000, and the Gesu Maria, erected in 1487, are some of the magnificent specimens of architecture which won for Genoa the title "La Superba" (the Proud).