Located a short distance from Brignole train station, it includes part of the very central Via XX Settembre, the main artery of Genoa's commercial area.

Today, with the disappearance of the “Fronti Basse,” demolished in the late 19th century, the axis of Via Fiume and Via Brigata Liguria demarcates the area of San Vincenzo from that of the Foce.

This road, frequented from ancient times, as evidenced by several archaeological findings,[4][5] crossed the Bisagno River at the bridge of S. Agata, near the “borgo degli Incrociati,” which at one time, before the construction of the New Walls, was the natural continuation of the “borgo di Bisagno.””... by the present Via s. Vincenzo one went to the hospice and hospital, which the ancient Crutched Friars maintained near the bridge of s. Agata: here one crossed the river, entered the Strada Romana in the villa of Terralba (s. Fruttuoso), and ascended to s. Martino d'Albaro, following by the Riviera di Levante.

The construction of the Mura Nuove came to break the continuity of the borough: while the area around the church of S. Vincenzo was included within the new circle of walls along with part of the Bisagno plain and became the heart of the new sestiere, Borgo Incrociati remained outside it.

[14] However, the large building was short-lived: towards the end of the century, with the opening of Via XX Settembre, the area was given a residential use; thus, the new psychiatric hospital in Quarto was built, to which the patients were transferred in 1894.

[3] The street, built by rectifying and widening the existing Via Giulia (in the Portoria district), Via della Consolazione and Via Porta Pila, was characterized from the beginning by Art Nouveau architecture; among the architects who participated in the various designs was the Florentine Gino Coppedè.

In place of these buildings and the remaining agricultural areas, a new elegant residential and commercial district was thus created in the quadrangle between Via XX Settembre, Via del Prato (today Via Brigata Liguria) and the Walls of St. Clare.

It was built in the last decade of the nineteenth century, rectifying and widening the route of Via Giulia and Via della Consolazione, in order to create a new road system towards the east, which until then had inadequate outlets.

From Via San Vincenzo begins the Salita della Tosse, which reaches the bastion of Acquasola from where through the gate of Santa Caterina one entered the city near the church of Santo Stefano.

Built between 1552 and 1554 to a design by Galeazzo Alessi for the Grimaldi family, because of the grandeur of its proportions and the richness of its ornaments, including frescoes by Luca Cambiaso[25] and Orazio Semino, at the time of its construction it was considered by Gauthier[26] to be one of the best suburban villas in Genoa, also mentioned by Vasari for its unusually ornate baths.

Between 2007 and 2009 it was fully restored, bringing back the villa's fine 19th-century style, which, although far from the sumptuous monumentality of the original structure, is included in the ministerial list of Cultural Heritage and in the Municipal Urban Plan among the elements of individual emergency.

[32] Monumental Bridge, which connects the Acquasola and S. Chiara Walls, was built to plans by Cesare Gamba[33] and Riccardo Haupt between 1893 and 1895, replacing the Porta degli Archi, which was dismantled and rebuilt on the Mura del Prato.

Over the bridge, which bypasses Via XX Settembre, passes Corso Andrea Podestà, which runs on the ramparts of the 16th-century walls and connects Piazza Corvetto with the Carignano area.

The building, currently owned by the Archdiocese of Genoa, is home to the diocesan periodical “Il Settimanale Cattolico,” the offices of the “Liturgical Apostolate,” and various secular and religious bodies.

The baroque “barchile,” built in 1643 by G. B. Orsolino to a design by Ottavio and Pietro Antonio Corradi,[37] commissioned by the protectors of the Bank of Saint George, had the function of supplying water to ships in port.

The monument in 1861 was moved by municipal resolution to Colombo Square, serving as a watering trough for the pack animals of the fruit and vegetable vendors and for the horses of the streetcars in service to the Bisagno Valley.

Among the most interesting exhibits are the fossilized skeleton of an Elephas antiquus, the largest elephant to have lived in European forests, found in 1941 near Viterbo, and that of a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) nearly 20 meters long, stranded in 1878 on the beach at Monterosso al Mare.

Built in 1930 to a design by Giuseppe Crosa di Vergagni, as the headquarters of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, after years of decay it was completely renovated in 2004 and transformed into a multifunctional hall equipped with modern technologies that ensure its use even by the hearing-impaired.

Originally called "Andrea Doria Theater," capable of accommodating two thousand spectators, in the last decade of the 19th century it was renamed "Politeama Regina Margherita," in honor of King Umberto I's consort.

The last performance was Paolo Rossi's Pop a rebelot, a show specially staged “to the bitter end” in an attempt to save the theater's fortunes, starring Enzo Jannacci and Dario Vergassola.

[7][19][45] The complex housing the Istituto Nazionale Sordomuti (now the Assarotti Foundation) is located in the upstream part of the district, at the corner of Via Serra and Salita S. Bartolomeo degli Armeni, a short distance from Piazza Corvetto.

The religious, impressed by a young deaf-mute, who despite his impairment and lack of education showed a lively intelligence, wanted to teach him to communicate with the help of gestures and later also with writing.

The institute in 1805 obtained, through a decree of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte,[46] public recognition, and in 1811 it was given a home in the former monastery of the Bridgettines, which, renovated by Gaetano Cantone,[47] began to function in December of the following year.

In 2003, the historic institute changed its legal status and name to “Fondazione Padre Assarotti - Istituto Sordomuti ONLUS Genova.”[49] The complex also includes the church of Our Lady of Mercy, built together with the monastery in 1667.

[54] The modestly sized church has a round shape and is topped by a dome; it preserves some works by early 20th-century painters and a statue of Our Lady of the Guard by Antonio Canepa.

The Genoa Ecclesiastical Boarding School, housing elderly and sick priests, which still exists in the building adjacent to the church, was established in 1841 on the initiative of Archbishop Placido Maria Tadini and other members of the Genoese clergy, members of the congregation of “Secular Priests of Saints Peter and Paul.” It had several temporary locations until in 1848 it was housed inside the Brignoline convent; it was finally moved to its present location after the convent's demolition in 1868.

It later passed (it is not known at what time) to the Poor Clare nuns, who erected a monastery nearby, who were succeeded in 1579 by the Somaschi Fathers, who kept it until its closure due to the suppression laws enacted in the Napoleonic period (1798).

Open in these walls were the gates of Acquasola (which disappeared with the construction of Piazza Corvetto), Portoria (also called Olivella or S. Caterina), which still exists and connected the village of S. Vincenzo, through the Salita della Tosse, with the center of Piccapietra, near the old Pammatone Hospital, and finally the main one, Porta degli Archi or S. Stefano, which stood where the Monumental Bridge is today.

Built in 1539 to a design by Giovanni Maria Olgiati, it was decorated on the outer side with Doric travertine columns and surmounted by a statue of St. Stephen, made by Taddeo Carlone.

The Genoese to indicate these places used and use to say in a brea (in the field), and the modern people have badly Italianized it, writing Contrada of Abrara.... it is beautiful the bath he made in the house of Mr. Gio.