Sampierdarena was an ancient fishing village, named after the church of San Pietro d'Arena ("St. Peter of the Sand"). During the
Italian Renaissance it became a residential area, with great palaces being built such as the Palazzo Imperiale Scassi, designed by
Domenico and
Giovanni Ponzello according to the style of
Galeazzo Alessi and for this reason believed in the past to be a work of Alessi himself and the Palazzo Spinola di San Pietro (whose designer is unknown), one of those drawn by the painter
Peter Paul Rubens in the book
Palazzi di Genova, published in
Antwerp in 1622. After the coming of the railways (1854) it became one of the great industrial centres of Italy. becoming in 1969 a
delegazione, and in 1978 a
circoscrizione of the city. At present it is part of the Genoa's city Municipio II (Centro Ovest), together with the neighbourhood of San Teodoro. The
Samp- in the name of Genoese football club
U.C. Sampdoria (and the unique striped bands across the kit) derives from the local team
Ginnastica Sampierdarenese, which merged with Società Andrea Doria in 1946. ==Economy==