Palazzo San Giorgio Genova

Built in 1260 on a project by Cistercian friar Oliviero, a technician working at the port, this palace was Genoa first public building and the seat of the first Captain of Popolo Boccanegra. In the XIV century it became Palatium Maris, seat of the custom house and of the management of port traffic. In 1407 the building became the Casa delle Compere e dei Banchi di San Giorgio, a sort of bank which was the first in the world to manage the loans that the city government used to ask citizens, repaying them with the proceeds of the duties, the so-called Compere.