An exceptional space. San Lorenzo Treasure Museum by Franco Albini

Albini designed the museum in a context of reinterpretation of modernity, which could be clearly linked to Bruno Zevi's ideas on the autonomy of interior and exterior spaces. Being located beneath the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace, it can also be understood thirdly as a satellite of the cathedral. The project falls within a mature phase of his career, having begun, around 1951, a series of works such as the Gallery of the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa, the INA offices in Parma, and a residential complex in Cesate.

The museum, which houses works of extraordinary artistic and historical value, presents a unique spatial and architectural composition. Its basic function is to serve as a showcase for exceptional liturgical objects, selected according to the needs of worship.

Albini intended to create an archaic space—catacombs, Etruscan and Mycenaean tombs, Romanesque churches—from a contemporary perspective. It is an abstraction of bare stone spaces, whose cylindrical shape also recalls apses. In reality, Albini was responding to the new spatial criteria that, in museographic terms, were developing in the 1950s and 1960s, and sought to establish a direct relationship between the works on display and the visitors. He created neutral containers that enhance the beauty of the pieces, using black Promontorio stone (a local grey stone, similar to slate, used especially in medieval buildings in Genoa) on both walls and floors.

San Lorenzo Treasure Museum by Franco Albini. Photograph by José Juan Barba.

Spatially, the museum is a concatenation of spaces; the whole is not revealed all at once, but rather reveals itself gradually, as the visitor walks through it and discovers the works as if emerging from the shadows. It recreates the ancient halls of wonders (Wunderkammern), with exceptional objects, which Albini presents by recovering the idea of ​​the tholoi: spaces that also play three-dimensionally with space, composed of several levels of circular and concentric steps.

The tour begins with the union of the two entrances in a small corridor that leads to a small pentagonal space, from which the first and smallest of the cylindrical spaces can be seen. From there, one enters a large hexagonal central space, to which are attached three larger cylindrical rooms of different diameters, which Albini christened tholoi (the tholos was the Mycenaean tomb), and a fourth multi-polygonal space, like a treasure vault: a storage room that houses other liturgical objects that are never displayed and are only shown during major religious ceremonies.

Using the same material for the roof, each space is roofed differently, using exposed reinforced concrete beams. In the vestibule and the first tholos, they are arranged diagonally, indicating the direction of travel, as is the arrangement of the floor stones. In the other three tholoi, the radial arrangement around an upper oculus reinforces the cylindrical spatiality of the rooms.

The space remains frozen in time: Albini's original layout is maintained, with the supports (wrought iron structures) and polygonal display cases, except for the semi-cylindrical ones, which house the Sacro Catino and the Croce degli Zaccaria.

San Lorenzo Treasure Museum by Franco Albini. Photograph by José Juan Barba.

It is a set of relationships between modernity and tradition, of a timeless beauty that can be explained in the context of the debate on tradition in architecture launched by Casabella-Continuità in 1955, before Albini completed the project: "I believe that architecture today projects itself toward a present reality, which is the product of numerous current and past components, in an attempt to gain knowledge of this reality."

A restoration project, led by architects Tortelli and Frassoni, was carried out in November 1996. It did not affect the integrity of the original structures, but was necessary to update the spaces, including the installation of a closed-circuit alarm system and the renovation of the ventilation, dehumidification, and lighting systems.

Before the creation of the museum, the treasure, which includes pieces from the 12th and 13th centuries, was located in the sacristy and an adjoining room. The idea for the museum dates back to the late 19th century, stemming from the interest of several intellectuals, including, in particular, the painter and art expert Tammar Luxoro, who also promoted the restoration of the cathedral.

Bibliography.- 
Patricia Marica. "Museo del Tesoro San Lorenzo". Guide Turistiche e d'Arte n. 249. Genova: Sagep Editori, 2007. ISBN: 9788870589801.
Franca Helg. "Franco Albini. Architettura e design 1930–1970". Centro Di, Firenze, 1979. Exhibition catalogue, ISBN: 8870380130.