Bolzaneto

Today it is a suburb of Genoa, surrounded by many small industries and business firms, but offering excellent views of the city and harbor.

Brasile is now a little hamlet on the hill behind Bolzaneto, but in the Middle Ages people lived there who had important roles in the government of the Republic of Genoa.

In 1746 the valley, Valpolcevera, was occupied by an Austrian-Piedmontese army, led by the General Botta Adorno, which came up to Genoa, from where he was expelled after the popular revolt of December 5, 1746, set up with the legendary episode of Balilla.

In the second half of the 19th century, the area, formerly agricultural, became industrial, with the establishment of several companies (the most important were the Foundries Bruzzo and the soap factory Lo Faro).

After the Second World War, the steel crisis led to the closure of Foundries Bruzzo (1957) and in a portion of these areas, near S. Biagio, was built the ERG refinery (then closed in 1988, also as a result of the growing attention of people to environmental aspects).

Close to Bolzaneto there is a police barracks that in 2001 was in the international headlines, when there many protesters (arrested during the disturbances occurred at the G8 meeting in the city of Genoa) were imprisoned.

The first fortress, shaped as a simple tower, was demolished in 1932 to create an antiaircraft position, the second one (Minor Brother) is still intact and overlooks the valley from the top of Mount Spino (622 m).

In the church there are also two paintings by Paolo Gerolamo Piola (Conversion of Saint Paul and Abraham receives three angels) and a Dead Jesus by Giulio Cesare Procaccini.

According to tradition, the site of the church and monastery of San Francesco was given by the noble family Lercari to St. Francis of Assisi, who was in Genoa in 1213 during a trip to France, but there are no documents that attest that.

The donation of the land is documented by a Convention act for the building of the monastery and the church of Chiappetta, stipulated in the 1280 between the family Lercari and the Franciscan Order, implemented in 1291.

Inside the church, which has a single nave, there are some remarkable paintings from the 17th century: Stigmata of St. Francis by Giovanni Battista Carlone, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Pietro Paolo Raggi (1649-1724), St. Catherine Fieschi's Ecstasy and Immaculate Conception by Domenico Piola and St. Anthony's Miracle” by Giuseppe Galeotti.

In 1798, due to Napoleon's suppression of religious orders, the Franciscan friars had to leave the monastery and the church was entrusted to the diocesan clergy until 1896, when they could return.

As mentioned above, the monastery and the church, due to the work to embank the torrent Polcevera (middle of the 19th century), passed from the right to the left bank of the stream.