Welcome to Palazzo Peloso Cepolla , a typical example of Albenga's palaces, the result of the consolidation of several medieval structures. On the corner facing Piazza San Michele stands the 13th-century tower , with a black stone base and a slightly pointed door; the top, once crenellated, is now adorned with pilasters with marble spheres. The 16th-century façade retains slate windows and, on the side facing Via Cavour, traces of medieval frescoes.
Inside, the main floor houses a rich ornamental display from the 15th to the 19th century: living rooms with fireplaces and slate portals, marble busts of Roman origin, frescoes depicting hunting and battle scenes, and a chapel with grisaille frescoes from the 17th century. The so-called "Philosophers' Room" preserves humanist frescoes from the second half of the 15th century.
The palace was the seat of the Cepolla family, one of Albenga's most influential families since the 12th century, involved in politics, commerce, and finance. In the 16th century, Prospero Cepolla, the last of the family, began extensive renovations to transform it into a stately home. It subsequently passed to the Peloso counts and finally, in 1947, to the Municipality of Albenga, which designated it as the headquarters of the Ingauna Section of the Institute of Ligurian Studies and the Roman Naval Museum .
The Museum, founded in 1950 by Professor Nino Lamboglia, houses artifacts from a Roman cargo ship from the early 1st century BC, which sank off Albenga. The ship's side and cargo of approximately 10,000 amphorae have been reconstructed, along with helmets, pottery, and parts of the hull. The Ingauno Historical Archive , the ancient collection of the Municipal Archives, and the library of the Ingauna Section are also housed here.
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