The building, the oldest surviving among those that made up the ancient Darsena municipal dockyard, has undergone a prestigious restoration, in stone and glass, by the Spanish architect Guillermo Vasquez Consuegro. The museum complex, which includes about 6000 objects, follows the evolution of the port and the maritime city and counts among its jewels the faithful reconstruction of a 17th-century Genoese galley.
Visitors are guided through more traditional rooms, but can also explore the Arsenal environments, visit the Darsena armory, leaf through precious 16th-century atlases with a multimedia support, board a 19th-century Ligurian brigantine, and even experience a storm at Cape Horn virtually reconstructed. More recently, Galata has renovated the third floor with exhibitions and arrangements related to the themes of travel between the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Steamship Room and the major exhibition “La Merica!” on Italian emigration.
The first features the reconstructed bridge of a steamship from whose wheelhouse, thanks to sophisticated software, one can virtually navigate the world’s seas.
In the second, equipped with passport and travel documents, the visitor can live the experience of emigration with departure and arrival at Ellis Island, New York.
