San Donato Church in Genoa is an exceptional example of 12th-century Ligurian Romanesque architecture. The façade, built from local limestone, is marked by a black-and-white banded portal and an architrave re-used from a Roman structure, a detail that underscores the continuity between the city’s classical past and its medieval present. Although the church has undergone several reconstructions, its original character has been preserved through the careful incorporation of surviving medieval fabric. The destruction of later additions during the Second World War left the core Romanesque structure largely intact, allowing its early form to be read with unusual clarity.
One of its most distinctive features is the octagonal bell tower, or nolar tower, integrated directly into the body of the church—an arrangement rare in Genoa. The tower is enriched with sawtooth friezes and a triple register of bifore and trifore windows, lending vertical rhythm to its mass. Within, the church follows a basilican plan with three naves, each ending in its own apse. The arcades are supported by twelve columns, six of them monolithic shafts of Roman origin reused from the earlier building, while the others, fashioned in alternating black and white stone and capped with Romanesque capitals, belong to later phases of construction, particularly those dating to the closing decades of the twelfth century. The pillars that uphold the tiburio also belong to the earliest fabric, providing a structural link to the building’s first phase.
Among the works preserved within is the Madonna del Latte by Barnaba da Modena, painted in the fourteenth century. Barnaba (c. 1328–1386) was among the leading figures of the early Genoese school, his style blending Lombard, Tuscan, and Byzantine influences. His impact endured well into the fifteenth century, shaping the work of local painters and securing his place in the city’s artistic lineage.
References
Whitfield, P. (2020) Historic Churches of Genoa: A Brief Guide. Genoa: Peter Whitfield