The Durazo family, Albanians who arrived as slaves, ruled Genoa for 3 centuries

 Doge Giacomo Durazzo Grimaldi with his senators (Photo by: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

 The city of sailors, Genoa in its maritime trade managed to become a multi-ethnic and multi-religious center. In Genoese history, examples of multi-ethnic integration abound, but the most famous is that of the Durazzo family.

The family arrived on Italian shores at the end of the 14th century from Albania due to the Ottoman occupation. Giorgio Durazzo and his family were bought as slaves by the Genoese Manuele De Valente in Messina in 1387. After being transported to Genoa, they were freed from slavery and began their social rise. In the mid-15th century, working as tanners or merchants allowed the Durazzo family to become one of the most important Genoese families. In 1528, in the register of the Ligurian nobility, they appear with the title of "young nobles", that is, those families who have reached the rank of commoners. In the 16th century, the family will become one of the richest in the Ligurian capital.

Giovanni Durazzo and Margherita Monsa, the first of the six children of Giovanni Grimaldi Durazzo held several important political posts in Genoa. His family, already part of the Genoese nobility, was engaged on several occasions in the public life of the Republic. In 1533 he was appointed ambassador of the Papal States, he was a senator between 1556 and 1570 and in 1573 he held the position of supreme mayor. Also in 1573, he was elected by the Senate of the Republic as head of the Doge of Genoa. Two years later, at the end of his term and after a civil war Giacomo Grimaldi Durazzo was replaced by Prospero Centurione Fattinanti.

 A book by Angela Valenti Durazzo, "The Durazzo, from Slaves to Doges of the Republic of Genoa"

The Durazzo family did not end its career in Genoese politics with the election of Giacomo Grimaldi Durazzo. From this family, there have been more than thirty senators, two cardinals, five bishops, sixteen ambassadors, and above all eight other heads of the Doge – Pietro Durazzo from 1619 to 1621, Giovanni Battista Durazzo from 1639 to 1641, Cesare Durazzo from 1665 to 1667, Pietro Durazzo from 1685 to 1687, Vincenzo Durazzo from 1709 to 1711, Stefano Durazzo from 1734 to 1736, Marcello Durazzo from 1767 to 1769 and Girolamo Luigi Durazzo, elected under the protectorate of Napoleon Bonaparte from 1802 to 1805 and honored by Napoleon after his death with the preservation of his heart in the Pantheon in Paris.

Owners of the magnificent villa of Durazzo-Pallavicini in Pegli, west of the city, the Durazzo family has for nearly three centuries been involved in Genoese politics, occupying the highest positions of the Republic and contributing to the splendor of Genoa. From an immigrant family, which today we would call refugees, to a nobleman.