Acquario di Genova

Aquarium Genoa, Italy

The Genoa Aquarium is the largest Italian aquarium, first in Europe for animal species, third in Europe for surface area, after that of Moscow, in Russia and that of Valencia, in Spain and the ninth in the world. It is located in Ponte Spinola, in the sixteenth-century ancient port of Genoa. The Aquarium, owned by Porto Antico di Genova SpA and managed by Costa Edutainment SpA, was inaugurated in 1992 on the occasion of the Colombiadi, i.e. the Expo celebrating the five hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. The design of the structure and the surrounding area is by the architect Renzo Piano, the interior design was designed by the architect Peter Chermayeff. It was subsequently expanded several times. At the time of its inauguration it was the second largest aquarium in the world. From opening to 2014 it was visited by over 25 million visitors, with an average of 1.2 million a year.