This magnificent park, with signs of its 16th-century layout still clearly visible, surrounds a villa built at the end of the 15th century for the nobleman Lorenzo Cristoforo Cattaneo. The property played host to King Louis XII of France in 1502 and later passed to the Salvago family, to the Imperiale family of Sant'Angelo, and finally to the City of Genoa.

The villa's garden is arranged on a series of geometric terraces at varying heights. It was completed in the middle of the 16th century with a nymphaeum and enriched with ramps lined with balustrades and long tree-lined corridors. Its subsequent design, featuring an English lawn and woods of holm-oak, cedar, and cypress, dates to the 19th century.
Today it is home to the Lercari Public Library.