The Church of Saint Anne (), with the adjacent convent and

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

of the

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...

, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located in the residential quarter of Castelletto in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

, north-western

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The village - now surrounded by the city - is still intact, with its leafy trees, cobbled walkways and open views from Salita Bachernia over the

Gulf of Genoa The Gulf of Genoa (''Golfo di Genova'') is the northernmost part of the Ligurian Sea. This Italian gulf is about wide from the city of Imperia in the west to La Spezia in the east. The largest city on its coast is Genoa, which has an importan ...

, the harbor and the Old City.

History

The convent of Saint Anne was founded in 1584 under the impulse of father Nicolò Doria, who returned from Spain to the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

to establish a monastery twenty years after the reformation of the

Carmelite Order The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

operated by

Saint Theresa of Avila In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...

and Saint John of the Cross. The pharmacy, still operating and currently known as Antica Farmacia Sant'Anna, was already documented in 1650. At the time of the foundation, the area was identified by the phytonym Bachernia, a reference to the berries of ''

Rosa Canina ''Rosa canina'', the dog rose, is a variable climbing, wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia. Description The dog rose is a deciduous shrub normally ranging in height from , though it can scramble higher into the ...

'' (Italian: ''bacca''), which is still used today to name the steep pathway (Italian: ''salita''; Ligurian: ''crêuza'') connecting the church to the New Walls. In the 18th century, alongside rural buildings, the first suburban villas were built, including the first nucleus of Villa Madre Cabrini, which is located near the entrance of the church. The area developed into a village with a growing number of inhabitants. The urbanization at the end of the 19th century saw the laying of the so-called Mountain Ringway (Italian: Circonvallazione a Monte) and the high-class

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

buildings of Corso Magenta and the Sant'Anna funicular being built immediately south of the church, but without affecting the integrity of the ancient hamlet. To this day, Sant'Anna remains an oasis of calm within the city, with its sycamore trees, cobbled paving and beautiful vistas over the old city and the harbor, only few minutes away from the central Corvetto square.

Description

The church features a single

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, several lateral chapels, and a 16th-century portal with a marble

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

of the Holy Family. Among the artwork contained in the church, it is worth noting: the large marble statue on the main altar with Saint’Anne and Child Mary, made by Francesco Maria Schiaffino; the paintings made by Domenico Fiasella of T''he Martyrdom of Saint’Andreas'' and ''The Martyrdom of Saint’Ursula''; the painting by Agostino Ciampelli of ''Saint Joseph and the Angel''; the painting by Castellino Castello of ''Jesus and Saint Teresa''; and the 16th-century ''Marriage of the Virgin Mary'', attributed to a Spanish-school painter. The frescoes were made in 1882.

The pharmacy

Immediately after the foundation, the friars established a pharmacy, first mentioned in 1650. The documents recount that father Martinus of Saint’Anthony (1638-1721) “''went out every day to find the ingredients necessary for the ailments ��and many came to him, although not everyone was cured by the same type of remedy ��and, therefore, it was necessary to make different potions, medicines and remedies''”. The records of the pharmacy report the names of the ailments and the clients. The most used preparations were the manna, tablets against teniasis, white sugar, Chinese potions, English salts, cinnamon, poppy flowers and a “spirit made of incense, myrrh, aloe and wine”. Amongst the clients, at the beginning of the 19th century there was the physician Angelo Bruzick, the chirurg Rocco Artisi of Voltri, the consul of Denmark Giuseppe Alessi Morellet, the pharmacy of the Genoese public hospital of Pammatone. Later the pharmacy had contact with the famous and controversial Parisian doctor Louis Le Roy, author of “La medicina curativa” published in Naples in 1825 in four volumes. The pharmacy is still active and known as the "Antica Farmacia Sant'Anna". It can also be reached using a private elevator from the pedestrian tunnel of the elevator Magenta-Crocco.

Note

Bibliography

* Nadia Pazzini Paglieri e Rinangelo Paglieri, Chiese in Liguria, Sagep: Genova 1990, * Giuseppe Marcenaro, Francesco Repetto, ''Dizionario delle Chiese di Genova'', vol. I, Edizioni Tolozzi, Genova 1974 * Lauro Magnani (a cura di), ''Chiesa di Sant’Anna'', Guide di Genova, n.90, Sagep, Genova 1979 * AA.VV., ''Chiese di Genova'', n. 8, Sagep, Genova 1986 * Elena Parma Armani, Maria Clelia Galassi, ''Artisti e artigiani del marmo dal Cinquecento al Seicento'', in AA.VV., ''La scultura a Genova e in Liguria dal Seicento al primo Novecento'', Vol. II, pp. 43–4

Gallery

File:Genova-chiesa_sant'anna-portale.jpg, Portale d'ingresso della chiesa File:Genova-chiesa_sant'anna-cupola_e_campanile.jpg, Cupola e campanile a vela File:Genova-chiesa_sant'anna-sagrato.jpg, Sagrato della chiesa

Other projects

{{Commons category, Sant'Anna (Castelletto, Genoa)

External links

* https://www.erboristeriadeifrati.it/ 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...