Villa Durazzo and its park
The town’s most important villa overlooks the harbour. It was rebuilt in 1678 on the ruins of an old castle, passed to the Durazzo family by marriage and in 1821 to the Centurione princes, which is why you will also see it called Villa Durazzo-Centurione. The town has owned it since 1973. Inside are the princes’ apartments, a museum dedicated to the writer Vittorio Giovanni Rossi and the Bellometti collection, with paintings and frescoes by 17th- and 18th-century Genoese artists such as Domenico Piola. Look for the Camera Umbertina, where Queen Margherita slept in 1904, left exactly as it was.
The park, about three hectares facing the gulf, is the reason most people climb up: a citrus grove on the sea terrace, a 19th-century Italian garden, palms, magnolias and camellias, and paths in risseu, the traditional Ligurian pebble mosaic. In 2026 the villa opens daily 9.30am–1pm and 2pm–6pm and the park 9am–6pm, with late openings on summer Tuesdays. Tickets and events at villadurazzo.it.
