Casa dello Studente, University student residence in the San Martino district, Genoa, Italy
Casa dello Studente is a residential building in Genoa designed with geometric clarity and expansive windows following rationalist principles. The facade displays no decorative elements, focusing instead on structural straightforwardness and practical function.
Construction was announced in spring 1932 and began on 24 May 1933 to designs by architects Mario Angelini and Mario Braccialini; the building was finished the following year and became operational in 1935. In December 1936 its management passed from the University of Genoa to the Partito Nazionale Fascista, and in 1941 it was renamed Casa del fascista universitario, run by the Genoese Gruppo Universitario Fascista. From late September to mid-October 1943 the German military requisitioned it repeatedly and it became the seat of the Gestapo.
The building's name changed in 1941 to "Casa del fascista universitario" under the Gruppo Universitario Fascista; after the war it returned to housing students. In the street-level canteen, former detention cells where SS prisoners waited before interrogation remain visible behind glass, and the Centro di documentazione "Logos" runs guided visits for school groups around 25 April.
The building stands on corso Aldo Gastaldi, near the Terralba freight yard and San Martino hospital. The former detention cells beside the ground-floor canteen, left visible behind glass, can be visited, and the Centro di documentazione "Logos" organises guided tours for school groups around 25 April. The torture cells and air-raid shelter were walled up after the war.
In 1972 a former partisan named Livio, living in the building, pointed out a walled-up entrance to the torture cells next to the kitchens; members of Lotta Comunista broke through the hard military concrete over several nights and found the rooms intact after decades. They are now a Museum of the Resistance.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,381 contributors worldwide.