Doria was not content with obtaining the greater part of the Fieschi feuds. He insisted upon the destruction of the sumptuous palace in Vialata and it was razed to the foundations. The work of demolition was conducted with such angry haste that a great part of the walls fell into the gardens of Ambrogio Gazella and the Republic paid for the removal of the rubbish. A slab of infamy was affixed to a wall near the ruins bearing a decree that nothing should ever be built upon the ground where a citizen had conspired against his country. The inscription no longer exists. The tables now in Vialata refer to rights of private property. Merciful time has cancelled the records of infamy against Gianluigi, though he has preserved them against the names of Vacchero, Raggio, Della Torre and Balbi.[48] The stone (as we find in a decree of 1715) was torn down, not by order of the Doge but by unknown hands, about 1712, perhaps by some of Gianluigi’s relatives.
Ancient tradition tells us that the marbles of the Fieschi palace were employed to embellish that of the Spinola which was erected on the ruins of the tower of the Luccoli. It is that edifice faced with alternate black and white marbles which stands on the piazza Fontane Morose. We know not whether the tradition be true, but it is certain that the statues in the palace of Spinola pertain to the family of its owners. The stones and marbles of Vialata were bought at auction by one Antonio Roderio and were scattered. The sculptures and other ornaments of the magnificent fountain which adorned the garden shared the same fate. They were the work of Giovanni Maria di Pasalo who, not having been entirely paid for his work by Fieschi, received some compensation from the Republic. The government took possession of the furniture and precious vessels which the palace contained not excepting the silver service which according to a memoir of Count Gianluigi Mario to the king of France (preserved in Beriana) was valued at one hundred thousand crowns.
Nothing remains of the splendid residence of the counts but a narrow subterranean passage whose architecture is of the fifteenth century. The walls are brick and it is covered with slate. Time and damp have nearly destroyed it. A branch of it once extended to the sea where the battery of Cava was afterwards erected, but not a vestige of this part now remains. The principal passage led to the valley of Bisagno, outside the gate of the Archi, and served for a means of retreat from the city in times of revolution. It is probable that this passage furnished Gianluigi with the means of introducing into the city, a few days before the insurrection, the armed men from his castles.
