Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Genovesi

Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Genovesi is a Renaissance church in Palermo’s historic centre, near the port of La Cala. Built for the city’s Genoese community, it has a spacious, restrained interior and large paintings connected with Genoa. Look for the family tombs, with their coloured marble inlays and carved emblems, and the burial place of painter Sofonisba Anguissola. The church is also used for weddings and cultural events. Its calm, austere character offers a different feel from Palermo’s more ornate Baroque churches.

Built for Palermo’s Genoese community

Palermo’s port drew merchants from across the Mediterranean, and the Genoese community became one of the city’s wealthiest and most influential. Its members included bankers, traders and shipowners. They established a church dedicated to their patron saint, Saint George, as a place of worship and community life.

Construction began in 1575 and was completed around 1596. The project was entrusted to Giorgio di Faccio, an architect from Piedmont. His design followed the balanced, symmetrical forms of the Tuscan-Roman Renaissance, a departure from the Gothic-Catalan style then common in Palermo.

Paintings and family tombs

Large paintings inside the church refer to Genoa and its ties with the community that built the church. The interior is spacious and comparatively restrained in appearance, especially beside Palermo’s Baroque churches.

Members of prominent Genoese families settled in Palermo, including the Doria, Pallavicino, Grimaldi and Lercari, were buried here. Their tombstones are decorated with coloured marble inlays and family coats of arms. Carvings of skeletons and hourglasses, alongside inscriptions, recall the lives of the merchants buried there. Sofonisba Anguissola, the painter, is also buried in the church.