The Istituto Mazziniano is in Palazzo Adorno. Originally, the building, which was built in the XV th century, was owned by the noble family of the Adorno; the front was decorated with frescos representing famous personalities probably belonging to the same Adorno family.
Then, in XVI th century , when the nobility was attracted by the prestigious palaces of Strada Nuova (now Via Garibaldi), the emergent middle class replaced the nobility and the buildings in this whole area of via Lomelllini underwent considerable transformation. In particular, this building was divided up into two apartments and a pharmacy; Mazzini’s family owned one of these apartments.
Giuseppe Mazzini was born in this building in 1805. When he died in 1872, the Genoese Workers Confederation promoted a subscription to raise funds to purchase the apartment in which he was born in order to found a Memorial Museum.
In 1925 the building was declared "national monument" and later the Government established the sum for the purchase of the entire building aiming at gathering in one single place all historical testimonies of the Risorgimento .
In 1934 the Istituto Maziniano was opened, comprehending the Memorial museum, the Library, the Archives and the Museum of Risorgimento, opened in 1915 in Palazzo Bianco.
Nowadays, Istituto Mazziniano is the most important institution in Italy for studies concerning the democratic republican movement inspired by Giuseppe Mazzini. All this is due to the collections increased over the years through private donations – often offered by the descendants of the protagonists of Risorgimento – and donations by workers and political associations.

The exhibition lay-out

The Museum winds throughs 12 rooms and contains paintings, drawings, documents, uniforms, flags, weapons.

The exhibition lay - out presents also multimedia installations . At the beginning a general presentation of museum, and a timescale concerning Genoa playing a central role in the History of the Risorgimento.

At 2nd floor an installation concerning the thoughts and deeds of Giuseppe Mazzini, and another one concerning Mutual benefit Society between Workers.
At last, an installation concerning italian anthem, and another one concerning the Departure of Thousands of Garibaldi in 1861.

The first room describes the XVIII century, in particular the revolt in 1746 against the Austrians, who were cast away from the city; the hero of this revolt was a young man, named "Balilla" (this was a nickname); in 1797 the aristocratic structure of the republican governement was transformed in a democratic Republic – jacobin Republic, "sister" of the French nation.
In 1805 the Republic became part of Napoleon’s Empire, and in 1815 Genoa and Liguria were annexed to Reign of Sardinia, but the Genoese people, traditionally and because of their republican tendencies, couldn’t accept the annexation to a reign and in particular the members of a secret association, the "Carboneria", conspired against the king.

On the second floor there is a multimedia installation concerning Mazzini’s thoughts, deeds, friends and detractors.
Here, we enter in Mazzini family’s apartment, with the reconstruction of the office of Giuseppe Mazzini with his guitar. Giuseppe Mazzini loved literature, arts, and music; he himself played guitar and composed music.
There are paintings, pictures, documents especially concerning his friends and his fellow exponents of the democratic and republican movement, which saw Genoa as the propulsive centre; the most famous are Goffredo Mameli, Carlo Pisacane, Jacopo e Giovanni Ruffini.
During the historical period called “Restoration” , and precisely in 1828, the young Mazzini began to speak about patriotism and politics, in the columns of the newspaper "L’Indicatore Genovese" writing about literature, but his voice was immediately suffocated by the government and in 1831 he was exiled. He chose Marseille in France, where he founded the "Giovane Italia", a secret organisation which in few years reached ten thousands followers.
In 1833 he founded the "Giovane Europa" to oppose - he said - the "Sainted alliance of the powers "with the" sainted alliance of the peoples". He lived also in Switzerland and for a long time in London (on the whole he lived 40 years abroad).
In the room in which Mazzini was born there is the memorial museum of Mazzini, with documents, objects, drawings concerning his life and his studies; one of the most important episode of his life was the defense of Roman Republic in 1849, and his death in Pisa (Tuscany) in 1872.

3d floor
At first, the original signed manuscript of the anthem "Fratelli d’Italia", written by Goffredo Mameli, with a multimedia installation concerning the anthem and the tricolour flag.

The subsequent section houses in a large hall the most spectacular part of the museum, dedicated to the expedition of the Thousand and the unification of Italy.
There are uniforms, the famous red shirts of Garibaldi’s fellows, weapons, flags, paintings.

A multimedia installation offers an explanation on the famous painting by the Dutch painter Peter Tetar Val Elven, which portrays the departure of Garibaldi and his fellow from Quarto on the 5 May 1861 (the painting dates back to 1891).

At last two little sections:
One section is dedicated to Genoese Carabinieri, association of young Mazzinians trained miltarily in the shooting with weapons and uniform belonging to the club that partecipated to expedition of the Thousand.
The last section is dedicated to the documents of the Archive of Istituto Mazziniano; it shows a selection of over 40.000 manuscripts kept into the archive, the most part concerning the protagonists of the mazzinian democratic and republican movement.

The exhibition ends with a section named "5th May 1915. The monument of the Thousands between mythos and propaganda", in witch is documented the long and difficult story of the monument and of his inauguration through the artistic and documentary testimonies present in the collections of the Institute. Remarkable are the sketch in plaster cast of the Thousands’ monument by Eugenio Baroni, the works realized by Plinio Nomellini and the original manuscript of Gabriele D’Annunzio containing the "Orazione per la Sagra dei Mille". The exhibition lay-out is enriched by moments of study in greater depth realized by use of multimedia stations, and by a new didactic equipment in Italian and in English.

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