Three buildings on Via Garibaldi (formerly Strada Nuova): Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Tursi, belong to the Commune of Genoa and two of them, Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco, had served as museums at the close of the nineteenth century. Palazzo Tursi has until now been the seat of Genoa's Communal Administration, but in the future will be functioning as a cultural center and museum as well as a place in which to welcome illustrious guests. These three buildings will collectively form a museum network which will constitute a well-thought out exhibition space that will constitute the heart and soul of an indoor and outdoor museum experience devoted to ancient art. In 2004 the first phase of the project will be completed and the city will have a unique cultural facility in terms of size, features, quality and prestige: a true "street serving as museum," a masterpiece of Genoese domestic architecture will welcome citizens and tourists alike. The entire city, symbolized by its most noble street, will in some ways function as the monumental introduction to the three museums occupying its western extremity. A house/museum from the seventeenth century, Palazzo Rosso, houses the art collection and historic furnishings of the Brignole-Salein family, and constitutes a spectacular architectural and decorative space. The region's most important picture-gallery, the Palazzo Bianco, offers a rich, articulated view of the paintings produced in Genoa and Liguria from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including major Flemish, Spanish, and Italian artists. The building is surrounded by courtyards, a variety of gardens (each quite distinctive) and terraces, along with buildings of great beauty. Finally, a third building, the most grandiose one built for a private citizen during the "Century of the Genoese," Palazzo Doria-Tursi, will house the Palazzo Bianco's additional holdings and will offer visitors the chance to view an unusual exhibit, located on the piano nobile (main floor), of decorative and applied works of art. These consist of tapestries, furniture, Genoese ceramics, and a famous collection of coins, weights, and official measurement units used in the ancient Republic of Genoa. Visitors will also have the opportunity to see the monumental halls until now reserved for the mayor, along with the room housing Paganini's violin and curios, both famous (the Guarneri del Gesł violin) and lesser known ones. Students and specialists alike, along with amateurs and enthusiasts, will find that the Palazzo Bianco's newly refurbished spaces (which already house the Drawings and Prints Library) constitute an integrated center of study and research. Visitors will thus be able to consult the history of art library (the largest in the region), the photography archives, and the topography and cartography archives. Thus Genoa's museums will thoroughly and efficiently serve their special functions, in keeping with the times and the newest technologies, which, along with conserving works of art, and making them available to and educating the public, constitute a museum's particular mission. Because if a museum stops being a center for research and the promotion of scholarship, its other functions become meaningless, both in terms of those it already has and those it could develop in response to new expectations. Palazzo Rosso will also be equipped with a new auditorium, while conference and meeting rooms will be available in Palazzos Bianco and Tursi, while awaiting for Palazzo Tursi's ground floor to also become available after 2004, upon completion of the project. Palazzo Tursi's ground floor will house educational facilities, along with service and multimedia areas, in order to offer visitors exiting the museum information on the Strada Nuova, its origin, how it was built, and its significance for Genoa and Europe.