The Oddo College was built in the first half of the seventeenth century on the initiative of the noble jurist Gio Maria Oddo who in his will (1628) destined his house and his assets to a college for the studies of the young people of Albenga and its territory, especially the poor and deserving. He did the same with the foundation of the monastery of San Tommaso, to educate and instruct girls, in particular the poor and deserving.
The male college began to function immediately after the death of the founder and the administrators of Gio Maria Oddo's assets managed it wisely, gradually acquiring the houses adjacent to that of the founder, building the church of San Carlo annexed to the college, which it was entrusted from time to time to Jesuits, Piarists and secular priests; until, in the first half of the nineteenth century the ownership of the entire block and the tower was achieved, the restructuring was carried out by unifying the uneven complex of the previous houses with a beautiful facade by the architect from Savona. A new large school building was built in 1940, and the old college became no longer accessible, and its ownership was transferred to the Municipality of Albenga. The entire complex, restored in the last years of the last century, now houses the Civic Library and the “Magiche Trasparenze” museum; it is the seat of exhibitions and conferences, also in the annexed church of San Carlo which has become an Auditorium.
The objective of the "Magiche Trasparenze" exhibition is to create an exhibition where you can appreciate the glassy finds recovered during the excavations in the necropolis of Albenga, among which there is a unique piece in the world, the so-called Blue Plate. The variety of shapes and colors and the considerable quantity of materials define the complex of ancient Albenga glass as one of the most conspicuous discoveries of recent years: it is made up of almost 200 pieces, the result of excavations and the enormous work carried out here in the last century by prof. Lamboglia, father of modern archeology, and from the International Institute of Ligurian Studies, with the discovery of most of the glass exhibited, up to the recent excavations in the riverbed of the Centa river and in the Pontelungo area by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of Liguria .