Sampierdarena (also San Pier d'Arena; Ligurian: San Pè d'ænn-a) is a major port and industrial area of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

, in northwest Italy. With San Teodoro it forms the West Central (Centro Ovest) ''

municipio ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...

''.

Geography

Sampierdarena lies on the coast about west of the centre of

. In 2000 the population was 67,741.

History

Sampierdarena was an ancient fishing village, named after the church of San Pietro d'Arena ("St. Peter of the Sand"). During the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the tra ...

it became a residential area, with great palaces being built such as the Palazzo Imperiale Scassi, designed by Domenico and

Giovanni Ponzello Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

according to the style of Galeazzo Alessi and for this reason believed in the past to be a work of Alessi himself and the Palazzo Spinola di San Pietro (whose designer is unknown), one of those drawn by the painter

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

in the book

Palazzi di Genova ''Palazzi di Genova'' is a 1622 book written and illustrated by Peter Paul Rubens, depicting and describing the palaces of Genoa, Italy in 72 plates. A second volume with 67 further plates was added the same year, and they are usually found (and r ...

, published in Antwerp in 1622. After the coming of the railways (1854) it became one of the great industrial centres of Italy. Gio. Ansaldo & C. was one of the leading companies of the area involved in shipbuilding and armaments, before it was finally taken over by

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...

in 1993. In 1926 the ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

'' of Sampierdarena was absorbed by

Greater Genoa Greater may refer to: * Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film * Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 * Greater Bank, an Austra ...

, becoming in 1969 a ''delegazione'', and in 1978 a ''circoscrizione'' of the city. At present it is part of the Genoa's city Municipio II (Centro Ovest), together with the neighbourhood of San Teodoro. The 'Samp' in the name of Genoese football club U.C. Sampdoria (and the unique striped bands across the kit) derives from local team Ginnastica Sampierdarenese, which merged with Società Andrea Doria in 1946.

Economy

Historically the area was dominated by heavy industry such as shipbuilding.

Geography

History

Economy

Notes and references

See also