Description
Palazzo Doria is the 17th-century residence of the Doria family in the historic center of La Spezia, along the old alley of Via del Prione, where it meets Via Sapri and Via Gioberti. Remodeled several times, it is still a fine example of a Genoese noble palazzo, tied to a famous guest: Richard Wagner.
Look for the doorway with the Doria coat of arms, still in its place, and the large windows of the piano nobile. On Via Sapri, some ground-floor shops incorporate columns with double capitals.
In the 1840s Marquis Giorgio Doria, a senator of the Kingdom, moved to a new palazzo on Via Chiodo, later destroyed by the bombs of 1944. The piano nobile, left empty, became a hotel, the Locanda Universo.
Wagner was staying at this inn in September 1853: looking at the sea and the waves on the rocks of the gulf, he found the inspiration for the prelude to Das Rheingold, the first step of his tetralogy. The plaque above the entrance, put up by the city in 1983, recalls it.
Look for the doorway with the Doria coat of arms, still in its place, and the large windows of the piano nobile. On Via Sapri, some ground-floor shops incorporate columns with double capitals.
In the 1840s Marquis Giorgio Doria, a senator of the Kingdom, moved to a new palazzo on Via Chiodo, later destroyed by the bombs of 1944. The piano nobile, left empty, became a hotel, the Locanda Universo.
Wagner was staying at this inn in September 1853: looking at the sea and the waves on the rocks of the gulf, he found the inspiration for the prelude to Das Rheingold, the first step of his tetralogy. The plaque above the entrance, put up by the city in 1983, recalls it.