The Duomo is the city’s heart. The huge one thousand-year-old Cathedral still preserves St. John’s relics, the Patron Saint of the city, carried to Genoa after the First Crusade (1098) together with the “Sacro Catino”, thought to be the Holy Grail and today visible in the Museo del Tesoro della Cattedrale. The interior of the Cathedral reflects the connections between politics and religion in Genoese history ever since.
The Museo Diocesano is very interesting too. Here you can visit the Romanesque cloister and an exhibit of a blue cloth considered to be the “ancestor” of Jeans, which get their name right from the city of Genoa.
There are many religious buildings in the city: more than 90 churches, many of them are aristocratic and a great part of them is in the historic centre or along the old streets outside medieval city walls – Baroque jewels such as San Siro church or the Jesuit’s one, or old witnesses of local history like Santa Maria di Castello or the Commenda di Prè.