Savona
This article is about the Italian city. For the small town of Savona, Canada, please see Savona, British Columbia, or the village in the USA, see Savona, New York.
Savona (
Sàn-na in the local
dialect of
Ligurian) is a seaport and
comune in the northern
Italian region of
Liguria, capital of the
Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea, at sea-level.
Savona used to be one of the chief seats of the Italian iron industry, having iron-works and foundries, shipbuilding, railway workshops, engineering shops, brass foundry.
Savona is the Roman
Savo of the Ingauni, where, according to
Livy, Mago stored his booty in the
Second Punic War.
The place was outshone in importance in Roman times by the harbor at Vada Sabatia (Vado), from which a road diverged across the Apennines to Placentia. In
1191 the commune of Savona bought out the territorial claims of the feudal lords, the marchesi Del Carretto. Its whole history is that of a long struggle against Genoa. As early as the
12th century the Savonese built themselves a sufficient harbour, but in the
16th century the Genoese, fearing that
Francis I of France intended to make it a great seat of Mediterranean trade, rendered it useless by sinking at its mouth vessels filled with large stones. In
1746 Savona was captured by the king of Sardinia, but it was restored to Genoa by the
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
*On the
Rocca di San Giorgio stands the fortress named
Priamar ("rock on the sea") built by the
Genoese in
1542, on the area of the old cathedral and later used as a prison and military prison (italian patriot
Giuseppe Mazzini was imprisoned here).
*Near the
Cathedral (built
1589 –
1604) is the Cappella Sistina containing the tomb erected by the Della Rovere
Pope Sixtus IV to honor his parents. The Cathedral has one of the most notworthy wooden choirs of Italian churches.
*Facing the cathedral is the unfinished
Palazzo Della Rovere, built by Cardinal Giulio della Rovere (
Pope Julius II) from the plans of
Giuliano da Sangallo as a university.
*The
Sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Misericordia.
*
ItalianVisits.com*
Genoa Airport
