The Villa Grimaldi Fassio is a civil building located in the Nervi district, in via Capolungo, in the municipality of Genoa. Municipal property, and located in the parks of Nervi, it has been the seat of the Raccolte Frugone since 1993.
History
The construction of the building dates back to the 16th century. Next to the villa there is an old chapel, deconsecrated, dating back to the second half of the XVIII century, like the building, in an eighteenth-century map by the cartographer of the Republic of Genoa Matteo Vinzoni The villa at the end of the 19th century was registered in the NapoleonicCatasto as a "holiday building" of Croce Giuseppe fu Andrea, and the Croce seem to be the descendants of the Grimaldi. In 1931 the villa was sold to the Brizzolesi family who sold it in 1956 to the shipowners Fassio Tomellini, who would make major changes to the structure of the building, designed by the architect Luigi Carlo Daneri, including the creation of a new lounge with access to the park. The municipality of Genoa purchased the villa and the surrounding park from the latter owners in 1979. The villa has hosted the Raccolte Frugone Museum since 1993 and the eastern part of its park houses a large rose garden, which in the past has come to have about 800 varieties of different roses and restored and named after its creator Luigi Viacava in April 2012.
Rose Garden
It was built in 1981 on the initiative of Luigi Viacava, director of the Gardens and Forests Service of the Municipality of Genoa.
The rose garden, for its position near the sea, represents one of the most beautiful in Liguria and in Italy. In 2018, the rose garden was part of Euroflora.
Premio Genova
Concorso internazionale della rosa rifiorente
Since 1985, the international competition of reflowered rose, also known as the "Premio Genova", has been hold there for many years.
The "Premio Genova", was hold in the last week of September and the subject of the competition were roses cultivated for at least two years and periodically inspected by a permanent jury that pronounced twice a year, in June and September, judging on the ability to produce flowers without interruptions from May onwards besides of course evaluating the beauty of the flowers themselves. At the end of the second year the prize was awarded by an international jury that integrated the judgment of the permanent jury.