Villa Quartara is the prestigious headquarters of the International Centre for Studies and Training with multimedia rooms distributed on the noble floor, on the ground floor and along the cloister, connected together via an internal audio-video circuit, with office spaces, support services and the wonderful secular park. The size of the existing volumes is especially suited for a training centre such as the CISEF GASLINI, to organise courses, conferences, seminars and training events, at local, national and international level.

The long and curious history of the Villa. Built in 1395 at the behest of Antonio Castagna, the noble construction changes ownership passing over the years to Spinola and Doria families, until 1889, when it is purchased by Lorenzo Quartara which transforms it, building new parts and decorating it with frescos according to the style of the Genoa baroque architecture. The villa also boasts a sacred stay: it hosted Pope Pius VII, who stayed in Genoa during his forced exile during the Napoleonic era. In one of our offices, we still retain a part of the canopy of the papal bed. More recently, in 1960, the Benedictine monks bought part of the park and Quartara donated the building to them thus becoming an abbey: place of prayer, meditation and studies supported by a library of over 30,000 volumes. At the beginning of the 2000s, Benedictines monks transferred the ownership to the Foundation Gerolamo Gaslini that, after impressive restoration and renovation work, converted it to a training centre managed by CISEF Gaslini.