Livorno

Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronounced , "Leghorn"
in the Oxford Dictionaries Online. or ).

During the Renaissance, Livorno was designed as an " ideal town". Developing considerably from the second half of the 16th century by the will of the House of Medici, Livorno was an important free port, giving rise to intense commercial activity, in the hands, for the most part, of foreign traders, and seat of consulates and shipping companies, becoming the main port-city of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The status of a multiethnic and multicultural Livorno lasted until the second half of the nineteenth century; however, the vestiges of that time can still be seen in the churches, villas and palaces of the city.

Livorno is considered the most modern among all the Tuscan cities, and is the third most populous of Tuscany, after Florence and Prato.

History

Origins

The origins of Livorno are controversial, although the place was inhabited since the Neolithic Age as shown by worked bones, pieces of copper and ceramic found on the Livorno Hills in a cave between ''Ardenza'' and ''Montenero''. The Etruscan settlement was called Labro. The construction of the Via Aurelia coincided with the occupation of the region by the Romans, who left traces of their presence in the toponyms and ruins of towers. The natural cove called ''Liburna'' is a reference to the type of ship, the liburna, used by Roman navy. Other ancient toponyms include ''Salviano'' (Salvius) and ''Antignano'' (Ante ignem) which was the place situated before ''Ardenza'' (Ardentia) where beacons directed the ships to Porto Pisano.
Cicero mentioned Liburna in a letter to his brother and called it Labrone.

Medieval

Livorna is mentioned for the first time in 1017 as a small coastal village, the port and the remains of a Roman tower under the rule of Lucca. In 1077, a tower was built by Matilda of Tuscany. The Republic of Pisa owned Livorna from 1103 and built a quadrangular fort called ''Quadratura dei Pisani'' ("Quarter of the Pisans") to defend the port. ''Porto Pisano'' was destroyed after the crushing defeat of the Pisan fleet in the Battle of Meloria in 1284. In 1399, Pisa sold Livorna to the Visconti of Milan; in 1405 it was sold to the Republic of Genoa; and on 28 August 1421 it was bought by the Republic of Florence.
The name 'Leghorn' derives from Genoese name Ligorna.Si veda in proposito G. Ciccone, ''Livorno: il mistero del nome'', in "Il Pentagono", n. 11, novembre 2009. ''Livorno'' was used certainly in the eighteenth century by Florentines.

Between 1427 and 1429, a census counted 118 families in Livorno, including 423 persons. Monks, Jews, military personnel, and the homeless were not included in the census. The only remainder of medieval Livorno is a fragment of two towers and a wall, located inside the Fortezza Vecchia.

Medicean period (1500-1650)

After the arrival of the Medici, the ruling dynasty of Florence, some modifications were made; between 1518 and 1534 the '' Fortezza Vecchia'' was constructed, and the voluntary resettlement of the population to Livorno was stimulated, but Livorno still remained a rather insignificant coastal fortress.
By 1551, the population had grown to 1562 residents.

During the Italian Renaissance, when it was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany of the House of Medici Livorno was designed as an " Ideal town". In 1577 the architect Bernardo Buontalenti drew up the first plan. The new fortified town had a pentagonal design, for which it is called '' Pentagono del Buontalenti'', incorporating the original settlement. The '' Porto Mediceo'' was overlooked and defended by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.

In the late 1580s, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, declared Livorno a free port (''porto franco''), which meant that the goods traded here were duty-free within the area of the town's control. In 1593, the Duke's administration established the ''Leggi Livornine'' to regulate trade. These laws protected merchant activities from crime and racketeering, and instituted laws regarding international trade. The laws established a well-regulated market and were in force until 1603. Expanding Christian tolerance, the laws offered the right of public freedom of religion and amnesty to people having to gain penance given by clergy in order to conduct civil business. The Grand Duke attracted numerous Turks, Persians, Moors, Greeks, and Armenians, along with Jewish immigrants. The arrival of the latter began in the late sixteenth century with the Alhambra Decree, which resulted in the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal - while Livorno extended to them rights and privileges; they contributed to the mercantile wealth and scholarship in the city.

Livorno became an enlightened European city and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin. Many European foreigners moved to Livorno. These included Christian Protestant reformers who supported such leaders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. French, Dutch, and English arrived, along with Orthodox Greeks. Meanwhile, Jews continued to trade under their previous treaties with the Grand Duke. On 19 March 1606, Ferdinando I de' Medici elevated Livorno to the rank of city; the ceremony was held in the ''Fortezza Vecchia'' Chapel of Francis of Assisi.

The Counter-Reformation increased tensions among Christians; dissidents to the Papacy were targeted by various Catholic absolute rulers. Livorno's tolerance fell victim to the European wars of religion. But, in the preceding period, the merchants of Livorno had developed a series of trading networks with Protestant Europe, and the Dutch, British, and Germans worked to retain these. In 1653 a naval battle, the Battle of Leghorn was fought near Livorno during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

17th century and later

At the end of the 17th century, Livorno underwent a period of great urban planning and expansion. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress was built, together with the town walls and the system of navigable canals through neighbourhoods. After the port of Pisa had silted up in the 13th century, its distance from the sea increased and it lost its dominance in trade, so Livorno took over as the main port in Tuscany. By 1745 Livorno's population had risen to 32,534 persons.

The more successful of the European powers re-established trading houses in the region, especially the British with the Levant Company. In turn, the trading networks grew, and with it, Britain's cultural contact with Tuscany. An increasing number of British writers, artists, philosophers, and travellers visited the area and developed the unique historical ties between the two communities. The British referred to the city as "Leghorn". Through the centuries, the city's trade fortunes fell and rose according to the success or failure of the Great Powers. The British and their Protestant allies were important to its trade.

During the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars of the late eighteenth century, Napoleon's troops occupied Livorno with the rest of Tuscany. Under the Continental System, the French prohibited trade with Britain, and the economy of Livorno suffered greatly. The French had altogether taken over Tuscany in 1808, incorporating it into the Napoleonic empire. After the Congress of Vienna, Austrian rule replaced the French.

In 1861, Italy succeeded in its wars of unification. At that time it counted 96,471 inhabitants. Livorno and Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy and as part of the Kingdom the town lost its status as a free port and the city's commercial importance declined.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Livorno had numerous public parks housing important museums such as the '' Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori'', '' Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo'', and cultural institutions as the '' Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi'' and others in Neoclassical style as '' Cisternone'', ''Teatro Goldoni'' and Liberty style as ''Palazzo Corallo'', '' Mercato delle Vettovaglie'', '' Stabilimento termale Acque della Salute'', the '' Scuole elementari Benci'' all the last on project by Angiolo Badaloni.

During the 1930s, numerous villas were built on the avenue along the sea in Liberty style on design by Cioni.

In the early 19th century, the first American-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, converted from Protestantism to Catholicism while visiting Italian friends in Livorno.

The city suffered extensive damage during World War II. Many historic sites and buildings were destroyed by bombs of the Allies preceding their invasion, including the cathedral and Synagogue of Livorno.

Livorno's citizens in recent decades have become well known for their left-wing politics. The Italian Communist Party was founded in Livorno in 1921.

Climate

Livorno has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification ''Csa''). Summers have warm days with the heat lingering on throughout the night, hence going above the subtropical threshold in spite of its relatively high latitude. Winters are mild for the latitude due to the influence from the Mediterranean Sea. Precipitation is in a wet winter/dry summer pattern as with all climates fitting the Mediterranean definition.

Population

Foreigner minorities

Armenian community

Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany issued in 1591 a decree encouraging Armenians to settle in Livorno to increase its trade with the Ottoman Empire and western Asia. By the beginning of the 17th century, Armenians operated 120 shops in town. In 1701 the Armenian community, who were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, were authorized to build their own church, which they dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator. The project was by Giovanni Battista Foggini and the church was completed a few years later but did not open for worship until 1714. The church had a Latin cross plant and a dome at the intersection of the transept and nave. Destroyed during World War II, it was partly restored in 2008 but is not open to worship.

Greek community

The first Greeks who settled in Livorno early in the 16th century were former mercenaries in the fleet of Cosimo de' Medici and their descendants. This community grew and became significant in the 18th and 19th centuries when Livorno became one of the principal hubs of the Mediterranean trade. Most of the new Greek immigrants came from western Greece, Chios, Epirus and Cappadocian Greek.

Based on its status since the late 16th century as a free port (''port franc'') and the warehouses constructed for long-term storage of goods and grains from the Levant, until the late 19th century Livorno enjoyed a strong strategic position related to Greek mercantile interests in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Atlantic. The conflicts between Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, with associated port embargoes, piracy, and confiscation of cargoes, played out to the advantage of those Greek merchants willing to accept risk. By the 1820s, Greek entrepreneurs gradually replaced the Protestant British, Dutch, French and other merchants who left the city.

The Greeks concentrated on the grain market, banking and ship-brokering. Cargoes of wheat from the Black Sea were received at Livorno, before being re-shipped to England. Returning ships carried textiles and other industrial goods, which Greek merchants shipped to Alexandria and other destinations in the Ottoman Empire. Men from the Greek island of Chios controlled much of the trade. In 1839 Livorno had ten major commercial houses, led primarily by ethnic Greeks and Jewish Italians.

The ethnic Greek community (''nazione'') had a distinctive cultural and social identity based on their common Greek Orthodox religion, language and history. In 1775 they established the Confraternity of Holy Trinity (''Confraternita della SS. Trinità'') and the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità, the second non-Roman Catholic church in Tuscany. The Armenians had earlier built their own Orthodox church. The community founded a Greek school, awarding scholarships for higher studies to young Greeks from the Peloponnese, Epirus, Chios or Smyrna. The community raised funds to support the Greek Revolution of 1821, as well as various Greek communities in the Ottoman Empire and in Italy.

It also assisted non-Greeks. The Rodocanachi family financed the "School of Mutual Education" established in Livorno by the pedagogist Enrico Mayer. The community contributed to founding a school for poor Roman Catholic children. The local governing authorities recognized the contributions of distinguished members of the Greek community (e.g. members of the Papoudoff, Maurogordatos, Rodocanachi, Tossizza and other families) and granted them titles of nobility. After unification and the founding of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Greek community in Livorno declined, as the privileges of the free port were rescinded.

Jewish community

See the history of the Jews in Livorno.

Dialects

;Vernacolo
Livorno inhabitants speak a variant of the Italian Tuscan dialect, known as a '' vernacolo''. '' Il Vernacoliere'', a satirical comic-style magazine printed chiefly in the Livornese dialect, was founded in 1982 and is now nationally distributed.

;Bagitto
The '' bagitto'' was a Judæo-Italian regional dialect once used by the Jewish community in Livorno. It was a language based on Italian, developed with words coming from Tuscan, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Yiddish; the presence of Portuguese and Spanish words is due to the origin of the first Jews who came to Livorno, having been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century.

Economy

Port of Livorno

The city and its port have continued as an important destination for travelers and tourists attracted to its historic buildings and setting. The port processes thousands of cruise-ship passengers of the following cruise line:

* AIDA Cruises
* Azamara Club Cruises
* Carnival Cruise Lines
* Celebrity Cruises
* Costa Crociere
* Cunard Line
* Holland America Line
* MSC Cruises
* Norwegian Cruise Line
* P&O Cruises
* Princess Cruises
* Pullmantur Cruises
* Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
* Silversea Cruises
* Thomson Cruises
* Viking Ocean Cruises

many of whom take arranged buses to inland destinations as Florence, Pisa and Siena.

''Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando''

Since 1866 Livorno has been noted for its Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando.
Azimut-Benetti acquired the Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando, then of Fincantieri, in 2003.

Eni petrochemical

The Eni plant produces gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil and lubricants. Livorno refinery was established in 1936 by Azienda Nazionale Idrogenazione Combustibili (ANIC) but the plant was completely destroyed during World War II. The plant was rebuilt thanks to an agreement between the ANIC and the Standard Oil forming the STANIC. The production of the new plant raised from 700,000 to 2 million tons in 1955; nowadays the capacity of refining is 84,000 barrels per day. The refinery, now property of Eni, is linked to the ''Darsena petroli'' (Oil dock) and to Firenze depots by two pipelines.

''Leonardo Sistemi di Difesa''

The former ''Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei'' (WASS) plant, based in Livorno produced heavy and light torpedoes, anti-torpedo countermeasure systems for submarines and ships and sonar systems for underwater surveillance. The factory was founded by Robert Whitehead in 1875 in Fiume, in that period Austria-Hungary, and produced for the first time torpedoes sold all around the world. In 1905 the factory changed its name to ''Torpedo Fabrik Whitehead & Co. Gesellschaft'' and before his death, Whitehead sold his shares package to Vickers Armstrong Whitworth. At the end of World War I the factory was in economic crisis and was purchased by Giuseppe Orlando, one of the owners of the ''Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando'' of Livorno, as Whitehead Torpedo, in 1924 when was signed the Treaty of Rome and Fiume passed to Italy. Whitehead Torpedo established in Livorno the ''Società Moto Fides'' that initially produced motorcycles but changed the production to that of torpedoes. With the end of World War II the Fiume factory closed and merged with ''Moto Fides'' forming the ''Whitehead Moto Fides Stabilimenti Meccanici Riuniti'' on 31 July 1945 manufacturing 1000 A244 light torpedo sold to 15 Navies. The ''Whiteheads Moto Fides'' continued the production of torpedoes in a new plant which opened in 1977 and still operating, then entered in the Fiat Group in 1979 and in 1995 passed definitely to Finmeccanica. It is now owned by Leonardo S.p.A., as the latter has been renamed since 2018.

''Tuaca''

'' Tuaca'' liqueur was produced in Livorno until 2010; the famous distillery was closed and operations were brought to the United States by the new owners. Galliano is still made here and enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.

Government

Main sights

''Acquario comunale "Diacinto Cestoni"''

Livorno Aquarium, dedicated to Diacinto Cestoni, is the main in Tuscany. It is situated by '' Terrazza Mascagni'' on the seafront promenade. It was built on a project by Enrico Salvais and Luigi Pastore as a heliotherapy centre and was opened to the public on 20 June 1937. Destroyed during World War II was rebuilt in 1950; in 1999 underwent extensive reconstruction, on a plan by Studio Gregotti and works carried out by Opera Laboratori Fiorentini, was opened definitely on 31 July 2010.
On the ground floor, the exhibition includes: Diacinto Cestoni Room which consists of 12 exhibition tanks, Mediterranean Area, Indus-Pacific tank, Caribbean Sea, Ligurian coast, Tropical waters, Greek-Roman archaeological coastal area. Livorno Aquarium has 33 exhibition tanks containing 2000 animals of 300 different species.

''Museo Civico "Giovanni Fattori"''

Dedicated to painter Giovanni Fattori, the museum was inaugurated in 1994 and is placed inside ''Villa Mimbelli'', an 18th-century construction surrounded by a vast park. The origin of the museum dates back to 1877 when the Comune of Livorno founded a Civic Gallery where to collect all the artistic objects kept in several places around the town; in the same period was written the guideline of the gallery which hosted a collection of paintings of authors by Livorno. The ground and first floors of the museum are adorned with decorations, furnishings and draperies of the 18th century style with frescoes by Annibale Gatti.

In these two floors are shown works by Enrico Pollastrini, Guglielmo Micheli, Ulvi Liegi, Oscar Ghiglia, Giovanni Bartolena, Leonetto Campiello and Mario Puccini. The main exhibition of the museum is at the second floor, where are displayed the paintings by Giovanni Fattori and other macchiaioli as Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini, Vincenzo Cabianca, Giovanni Boldini, Adolfo Tommasi, Angiolo Tommasi and Ludovico Tommasi. In the other halls are the post-macchiaioli as Eugenio Cecconi, Vittorio Matteo Corcos and divisionism as Benvenuto Benvenuti and Plinio Nomellini. Giovanni Fattori was the main representative artist of the macchiaioli, some of his paintings exhibited are: ''Carica di Cavalleria a Montebello'' (1862), ''La Signora Martelli a Castiglioncello'' (1867), ''Assalto alla Madonna della Scoperta'' (1868), ''Giornata grigia'' (1893), ''Mandrie maremmane'' (1893), ''Lungomare ad Antignano'' (1894), ''Ritratto della terza moglie'' (1905).

''Museo Ebraico "Yeshivà Marini"''

The Yeshivà Marini Museum is housed in a neoclassical building already place of worship as Marini Oratory since 1867; once was home of the Confraternity Malbish Arumin which was provided to help the city's poor. In the post-war period was utilized as a synagogue in the waiting for the construction of the new one. The museum has a collection of liturgical objects coming from the old Synagogue destroyed in World War II. The commerce practised by the Jews community increased the property of the synagogue allowing a varied religious heritage of Dutch, Florentine, Venetian, Roman and Northern African origin. The display regard the Torah ark, the sefer Torah, paintings, religious objects as the Oriental-style wooden ''hekhal''; the oldest and most important pieces went lost.

''Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo''

The origins of the museum date back to 1929 and part of the objects went destroyed by World War II. After the war, the museum was reopened inside the Livorno Aquarium and only in 1980 was transferred to Villa Henderson. The museum is divided in several halls regarding the Man, the Man in the Mediterranean context, the Invertebrates, the Sea, the Flight in Nature. Inside the museum is a Planetarium and an Auditorium.

''Museo Mascagnano''

The ''Museo Mascagnano'' houses memorabilia, documents and operas by the great composer Pietro Mascagni, who lived here. Every year some of his operas are traditionally played during the lyric music season, which is organized by the Goldoni Theatre. Also the '' Terrazza Mascagni'' is situated on the boulevard on the seafront, is named in his honour.

''Orto Botanico del Mediterraneo''

The ''Orto Botanico del Mediterraneo'' is a botanical garden located on the grounds of the '' Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo''.

Points of interest

Civil architecture

''Venezia Nuova''

Ferdinando II de' Medici considered, in 1629, the opportunity to enlarge the town, on project by Giovanni Battista Santi, toward north in an area included among '' Fortezza Vecchia'' and '' Fortezza Nuova'', in order to give an adequate space to the maritime and commercial activities. There was the need to build a mercantile district, close to '' Porto Mediceo'', provided with houses and depots to store the merchandise and a system of canals to facilitate their transport. The new '' rione'' (district), called ', was built in an area gained to the sea, intersected by canals and linked to the town with bridges, for this reason, Venetians skilled workers were recruited.

The ''Chiesa di Sant'Anna'', dedicated to Saint Anne, was built in 1631 on the ground of the Arch confraternity of the Company of the Nativity; in the same year Giovanni Battista Santi died and the control of the project passed to Giovanni Francesco Cantagallina though the works slowed down due to the lack of funds.

A new impulse to the works was given in 1656 concerning the distribution of the spaces where to build other houses and stores; consequently arose the problem of the diverse oriented road scheme with respect to the axis of ''Piazza d’Arme'', it was resolved by adopting a road plan perpendicular to the Navicelli channel. The paving of the roads and along the canals in ''Venezia Nuova'' was provided in 1668, while the ''Pescheria Nuova'' (New fish market) was built in 1705 close to the ''Scali del Pesce'' where the fish was unloaded.

In the 1700s ''Venezia Nuova'' was the district of the Consuls of the Nations and of the most important international retailers who had the warehouses filled with goods from everywhere waiting to be shipped by sea to the most different destinations. The palaces along the canals had the turrets from which to see the ships approaching the port, moreover, they had the stores at the canal level to facilitate the unloading of the goods from the boats.

The ''Venezia Nuova'' district retains much of its original town planning and architectural features such as the bridges, narrow lanes, the houses of the nobility, churches as Santa Caterina da Siena and San Ferdinando, and a dense network of canals that once served to link its warehouses to the port.

''Monumento dei quattro mori''

The Monument of the Four Moors is dedicated to Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is one of the most popular monuments of Livorno. Ferdinando I commissioned it to Giovanni Bandini in 1595 to carry out a monument in white Carrara marble to represent him in the uniform of the Grand master of the Order of Saint Stephen which in that period prevailed in several naval battles against the Barbary pirates. The monument was completed in 1599, shortly before the death of Bandini which occurred on 18 April,
and arrived to Livorno by sea from Carrara in 1601.

Ferdinando I projected to add four statues of moors prisoners at the pedestal of his monument and gave the task to Pietro Tacca in 1602 but the monument remained in a corner of the square till 29 May 1617 when it was inaugurated by Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the meantime Tacca received the approval to add the four moors to the pedestal; the first two statues were fused in Florence in 1622 and carried on the barges along the Arno to Livorno; according to the tradition the young moor was named Morgiano and the older Alì Salentino; the other two sculptures were installed in 1626. During the French occupation of Livorno, from 1796 to 1799, the monument was removed from Sextius Mollis commander of the French garrison because it represented an insult to the tyranny, as soon as the French left the town the monument was put back in its former place.

During World War II the monument was transferred to a protected place in order to avoid being damaged by allied attacks, the statue of Ferdinando I was hidden in the Pisa Charterhouse and the four moors in the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano.
The monument has been restored recently in 1990 and 2013.

''Acquedotto Leopoldino''

The '' Acquedotto Leopoldino'' and the neoclassical cisterns of Livorno were part of a sophisticated scheme to provide water to Livorno.

''La Gran Conserva''

'' La Gran Conserva'', or ''Il Cisternone'', situated on what were the outskirts of 19th-century Livorno, is the largest and best known of the city's covered cisterns.

''Cisternino di città''

''Cisternino di città'' is an austere neoclassical design which was approved in 1837 and completed in 1848.

''Piazza della Repubblica''

At the beginning of the 19th century arose the need to connect the Medicean road system of the '' Pentagono del Buontalenti'' to the new eastern districts of the town, on the other side of the ''Fosso Reale'', and the requirement to dismantle the city gate ''Porta a Pisa''. The solution adopted in 1844 was that of Luigi Bettarini which considered the coverage of the ''Fosso Reale'' with an imposing vault, 240 meters long and 90 meters wide, creating an elliptical paving. The portion of the canal covered by the new structure continued to be navigable.

The new square was commonly called ''Piazza del Voltone'' until 1850, then ''Piazza dei Granduchi'' in honour of the Lorraine dynasty until 1859, in the period of the Italian unification was named to ''Carlo Alberto'' until June 1946 when was given the current name ''Piazza della Repubblica''. The square, adorned with 52 marble benches, 92 pillars and two statues dedicated to Ferdinand III by Francesco Pozzi were inaugurated on 8 September 1847 and that dedicated to Leopold II by Paolo Emilio Demi was installed on 6 June 1848. The statue of Leopoldo II was damaged by the crowd on 6 May 1849 and removed from the square because the Emperor was seen as the symbol of the Austrian domination; the statue was placed in ''Piazza XX Settembre'' in 1957.

''Terrazza Mascagni''

The ''Terrazza Mascagni'' is a wide sinuous belvedere toward the sea with views to the Livorno hills, the Tuscan Archipelago to Corsica, and the Port of Livorno. It is located on the site of the ''Forte dei Cavalleggieri'' (Cavalrymen Fort) built in the 17th century by Cosimo I de' Medici to deter pirate raids, subsequently replaced by a leisure park in the 1800s, and a heliotherapy centre in the early 1900s. A new parterre, built between 1925 and 1928 by Enrico Salvais and Luigi Pastore, was formed by a series of flower beds and a walkway which follow the outline of the sea with numerous balustrades named after Costanzo Ciano. The ''Terrazza'' has a paved surface of 8,700 square meters formed by 34,800 black and white tiles placed as a checkerboard and 4,100 balusters. In 1932, a gazebo for musical performances was built in the large square; it was destroyed during World War II. In 1937 the Livorno Aquarium was constructed. After the war, the ''Terrazza'' was dedicated to Pietro Mascagni and in 1994 it underwent a complete restoration using the same kind of materials originally employed; the works were completed on 10 July 1998 with the reconstruction of the gazebo.

''Palazzo Comunale''

Livorno was elevated to the status of city on 19 March 1606 by Ferdinando I de' Medici, the first Gonfaloniere Bernardetto Borromei and the Community representatives held their meetings in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Julia. On 13 June 1646 a building, placed in ''Via del Porticciolo'', was purchased for the sum of seven thousand ducats, in order to accommodate the Community. It was evident that it was inadequate to the task and the Council deliberated, on 27 January 1720, the construction of the new town hall on the project by Giovanni del Fantasia.

The new neo-renaissance palace, positioned between ''Palazzo della Dogana'' and ''Palazzo Granducale'' on the north side of ''Piazza d’Arme'', was partially destroyed by the 1742 earthquake. Restored in 1745 by Bernardino Ciurini and Antonio Fabbri a double white marble stairway and a small bell tower on the top of the façade were added. In 1867 the complex was enlarged with the acquisition of three other buildings in the back. With the settlement of the Podestà in the fascist period was carried out a new enlargement in 1929 by Enrico Salvais and Luigi Pastore transforming the adjacent former fire station in the council hall. Damaged by the bombing during World War II it was rebuilt and renovated under the direction of Primavera and was inaugurated in 1949 by the mayor Furio Diaz.

Religious architecture

Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi

The cathedral of the town, commonly called Duomo di Livorno, is dedicated to Francis of Assisi, Mary, mother of Jesus, and Julia of Corsica, and was built in a central position of the Pentagono del Buontalenti on the south side of Piazza Grande once named Piazza d’Arme. The original plan was drawn up by Bernardo Buontalenti when he projected the new town. The construction began in June 1581 on a reviewed plan by Alessandro Pieroni under the direction of Antonio Cantagallina. The church had a rectangular plant with a single nave, the original wooden ceiling, executed from 1610 to 1614, was carved by Vincenzo Ricordati and gilded with seven inserted paintings. Jacopo Ligozzi, Domenico Cresti and Jacopo Chimenti decorated, from 1610 to 1614, three large paintings representing "Saint Francis with Child and the Virgin", the "Assumption of Mary" and the "Apotheosis of Saint Julia", the other four paintings were works by minor artists.Livornoyoung
/ref> The simply façade had a marble porch with twin Doric columns surmounted by a terrace added in 1605 on a project by Alessandro Pieroni.

The church was consecrated on 19 February 1606 by Monsignor Nunzio Antonio Grimani; on request by Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1629, was elevated to collegiate church and the ''Curato'' was substituted from a ''Proposto'' having the functions of the Vicar of the archbishop of Pisa.
The plant of the church was modified in Christian cross when in 1716 was added the first of two lateral chapels. The left side chapel, dedicated to the Eucharist, was built on a project by Giovanni del Fantasia with frescoes by Giovanni Maria Terreni and the altar attributed to Giovanni Baratta, The right side chapel, dedicated to Immaculate Conception, was built in 1727 and was decorated with paintings by Luigi Ademollo. The Collegiata in 1806 was elevated to cathedral and in 1817 was added the bell tower 50 meters high on project by Gaspero Pampaloni.
The cathedral was completely destroyed in 1943 from the Allied bombardment during World War II; it was then rebuilt respecting the original structure except for the two marble porches added to the transepts and was consecrated on 21 December 1952 by Bishop Giovanni Piccioni.

Since 2006, on the occasion of the bicentennial of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Livorno

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