Villa Grimaldi, Villa in Sampierdarena, Genoa, Italy

Villa Grimaldi, known as la Fortezza, is a 16th-century noble residence in Sampierdarena, Genoa. The cubic building has two loggias: a ground-floor one on the main facade and another on the piano nobile facing north onto via Nicolò Daste. Its entrance, raised above street level, is a three-arch loggia; later alterations removed the original Doric semi-columns and Corinthian pilasters.

Villa Grimaldi, known as la Fortezza, was built in the 1560s for the Genoese banker Giovanni Battista Grimaldi to a design by Bernardo Spazio, inspired by Galeazzo Alessi. After Spazio died in 1564, Giovan Battista Castello took over and Giovanni Ponzello completed the work from 1567. In 1800 Napoleonic troops used it as a hospital during the siege of Genoa; in the mid-19th century it passed to Agostino Scassi and later housed a food-preserving factory.

The name "Fortezza" sets the villa against its neighbours, the villas Imperiale and Lercari Sauli, called "Bellezza" and "Semplicità". Since 2022 the restored rooms have been assigned to the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, the Teatro Nazionale di Genova and the Zapata social centre.

The main entrance faces via Palazzo della Fortezza, a side street off via Nicolò Daste, not the main road. The building was closed as a school in 2008 and underwent a full restoration from 2022; its rooms are assigned to the Accademia Ligustica, the Teatro Nazionale di Genova and the Zapata social centre. For years the forecourt served as an open-air cinema and theatre arena.

Rubens sketched the villa in 1607 while staying as a guest of Pasquale Grimaldi; the drawing appeared in his 1622 Antwerp volume on Genoa's palaces. It records the lost facade: paired Doric semi-columns below, Corinthian pilasters above, and a chiaroscuro fresco by Battista Perolli, all erased by later remodelling.