The Nineteenth Century
After the brief Napoleonic period (1797-1814), Livorno was again ruled by the Grand Duchy of the last of the Lorraine dynasty, who succeeded the Medici in 1737. Many public works were commissioned, and this was to continue for the rest of the nineteenth century, also after the Unification of Italy. The splendid, airy promenade, the Passeggiata dei Cavalleggeri, was created, stretching to Ardenza. The Lorraine Grand Dukes were the first to come to Livorno for sea bathing and the whole court followed suit. The first baths in the city were Bagni Baretti (1781), which opened with therapeutic aims in mind: to treat illnesses with cold and hot sea water. The elite of Livorno and elsewhere took the waters in closed tubs; the sea water was let in continuously by means of a pump, while the common people had long been accustomed to heading for the rocks and diving directly into the sea.
Livorno became a famous, smart holiday resort, equipped as it was with its bathing establishments with their vibrant, even flirtatious, social life, which continued with the afternoon ritual of the carriage ride along the seafront to the rotunda of Ardenza, with evenings spent in the drawing rooms of rented houses or in the many theatres in town.
Indeed, the development of tourism and thriving business at the Orlando Shipyard (1865) with its iron ship industry, succeeded in partly offsetting the crisis in the deposit and transhipment system and the abolition of Livorno’s status as a free port status.
Livorno became a famous, smart holiday resort, equipped as it was with its bathing establishments with their vibrant, even flirtatious, social life, which continued with the afternoon ritual of the carriage ride along the seafront to the rotunda of Ardenza, with evenings spent in the drawing rooms of rented houses or in the many theatres in town.
Indeed, the development of tourism and thriving business at the Orlando Shipyard (1865) with its iron ship industry, succeeded in partly offsetting the crisis in the deposit and transhipment system and the abolition of Livorno’s status as a free port status.
The Twentieth Century
In the first decades of the twentieth century, Livorno was still a popular holiday resort. In 1904, the imposing edifice of the Terme del Corallo, with its gardens, was built, the owners’ intention being that Livorno should become “Montecatini-on-sea”. During the Fascist era, with the support of Livorno-born Costanzo Ciano, an influential Minister and President of the of Italian Chamber of Deputies, Livorno grew considerably, with dock infrastructures and other industrial and architectural projects, thanks to a major recovery plan for the town centre. Substantial demolition took place to make room for new buildings. The regeneration project was headed by the great Rationalist architect Marcello Piacentini, who redesigned the San Giovanni Quarter (in front of the Old Fortress).
Twentieth-century Livorno has handed down a vast architectural heritage in the Rationalist style that this is well worth exploring: Palazzo del Governo and Palazzo dell’Inps in Piazza Unità d’Italia, Palazzo del Portuale in front of the Old Harbour; Palazzo Grande, Palazzo dell’Anagrafe and Palazzo della Banca d’Italia in Piazza del Municipio and various other private buildings are located in the centre, while the amazing, grandiose, dynamic hospital complex, the Spedali Riuniti (1931) is slightly further afield. Unfortunately, Livorno suffered terrible bombing raids during the Second World War, which devastated the port and razed almost the entire town centre to the ground.