Municipal Administrations (19th-20th century)

In 1797, the fall of the aristocratic Republic marked the end of the old Magistrates. The new forms of government also led to administrative innovation: in the period between 1797 and 1815, when Liguria became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Genoa's administrative system changed a total of six times. Although annexation to the Napoleonic Empire marked the end of Genoese independence, it gave rise to many major innovations. In 1805, for the first time, Genoa had a modern municipal administration modelled on the French Mairie.

After the unsuccessful attempt to revive the old Republic (1814), the Piedmont government abolished the innovations introduced by France (including the metric system) and entrusted the government of the city to a Corpo Decurionale of eighty members, nominated by the King according to nobility and estate, led by a first rank Mayor and a second rank Mayor, who ran Genoa until 1849, when, following the approval of the new law on municipalities of 7th October 1848, a new administrative system was introduced.

All these events are recorded in the related archival material, grouped into the following classifications: Municipal administration under Ligurian government; Municipal administration under French government; Decurionale administration; Civic Administration Secretariat.

From the Unification of Italy to 1945, the documents of the City of Genoa Administration are gathered in two sections, the Municipal Administration Collection 1860 - 1910 and the Municipal Administration Collection 1910 - 1940, in addition to the Construction Projects Collection 1868 - 1925.

Another vast section of the Archive consists of documents from the municipalities annexed to Genoa in 1873 (Foce, S.Francesco d’Albaro, S.Martino d’Albaro, S.Fruttuoso, Marassi, Staglieno) and the nineteen more municipalities annexed in 1926 to form Great Genova. Next to these documents is the Civil Registration Historical Archive, including indices and records of births, weddings and deaths for the years 1786 - 1814 and 1828 - 1854, volumes of the four 19th-century censuses (1808, 1827, 1856, 1871), as well as registers of military conscriptions, from the Napoleonic era to 1910.